China has launched a massive emergency response as Typhoon Dolphin made landfall near Yuhuan City in Zhejiang Province at approximately 5:30 pm local time (09:30 GMT). According to the National Meteorological Centre, the storm arrived with maximum wind speeds exceeding 150 kilometres per hour, prompting authorities to issue a red typhoon alert—the highest level of warning.
Forecasters have predicted that parts of central and eastern Zhejiang could face between 250 and 500 mm of rainfall. The storm is expected to weaken as it moves in a northwesterly direction over eastern China.
The scale of the evacuation effort is significant, with more than 900,000 residents relocated from Wenzhou alone, where over 1,000 emergency shelters were opened to accommodate those displaced. Additionally, nearly 99,000 people were moved from at-risk areas in Fujian province on Saturday evening.
To ensure public safety, transit services have been heavily impacted: nearly 1,400 flights were cancelled at Shanghai’s two main passenger airports on Sunday, while Hangzhou’s airport reported 270 inbound and outbound cancellations.
Numerous ferry routes and train services across the region have also been suspended, and offshore construction work was halted, with 474 construction vessels recalled to port by Friday morning.
Prior to reaching China, the typhoon caused disruption in Taiwan, where dozens of ferry services were suspended and more than 180 flights were cancelled as the storm brought downpours and strong winds to the island's north on Sunday. The storm also impacted Japan’s Okinawa, where 5,290 households were without electricity by Sunday afternoon.
Seven people in Okinawa suffered minor injuries, including a man aged over 100 who was blown over by gusts, fell to the ground, and hit his head, according to the island's government.
The effects of the storm were felt as far away as Hong Kong on China's southern coast, where the weather observatory posted a record high temperature of 36.9°C. The observatory noted that this was caused by warm air pushed over the city by Typhoon Dolphin.
With the storm moving inland, its outer subsiding air is expected to persistently bring extremely hot weather to the territory from today through Tuesday.
Heavy precipitation is also expected to fall in Shanghai and parts of Fujian, Anhui, and Jiangsu provinces through Monday afternoon. This latest weather crisis follows the arrival of Typhoon Noul, which struck southern Guangdong province two weeks prior. Authorities had declared Noul the strongest storm to hit China this year at the time.
Before reaching China, Typhoon Noul had killed three people and damaged hundreds of homes in the Philippines. Scientists continue to emphasize that human-driven climate change is making extreme heat events more frequent and more intense worldwide.
