July 2016 North China cyclone

Meteorological history

The meiyu front persisted over the region between Huai River and Yangtze during mid-July since the dissipation of Typhoon Nepartak. Meanwhile, the subtropical ridge over the northwest Pacific Ocean was located unusually southward and westward, which blocked the Southwest Monsoon and made it completely flow into mainland China. On July 19, as the westerlies collided with the strong Southwest Monsoon, cyclogenesis began within the front and formed an extratropical cyclone over Henan, China at around 20:00 CST (12:00 UTC). Slowly drifting north-northeastward, the system quickly occluded right before 08:00 CST (00:00 UTC) on July 20 and reached peak intensity over Hebei at around 14:00 CST (06:00 UTC), with the central pressure at 992 hPa (29.29 inHg); however, surface sustained winds remained below gale-force. The low quickly lost its fronts after that and weakened owing to disconnected from the Southwest Monsoon. It became almost stationary near Beijing until it dissipated after 20:00 CST (12:00 UTC) on July 21.

Impact

Throughout the municipalities of Beijing, Chongqing and Tianjin as well as the provinces of Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Inner Mongolia, Jilin, Liaoning, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan and Yunnan, the extratropical cyclone brought torrential rainfalls and caused severe flash floods, which affected 15,597,000 people, with 184 deaths, 130 missing and ¥33.19 billion (US$4.96 billion) of damage. 575,000 people were evacuated, and 155,000 people need an emergency relief. More than 129,500 houses are collapsed, and at least 361,000 houses are damaged. The damaged agricultural areas are 12,049 km², including 807 km² of the destroyed agricultural areas.