China’s rainy season not yet ceasing by Darren Bett
As reported here, most recently on the Monday 13th June, China has been plagued by heavy rain since May, the start of the country’s rainy season. Days of heavy rainfall has caused flooding and landslides across several provinces in the country. The rains cause widespread and damaging floods every year, but this year seems to have brought a tragically high loss of life. Only yesterday another eight people were killed in Jiangsu province after a severe storm and suspected tornado.
Taiwan has also suffered from days of heavy rain. In Tainan, 878mm of rain (34.5 inches) has fallen in the past five days, causing landslides and flooding. The average rainfall expected here in June is just 400mm (16 inches). Another 75-200mm (3-8 inches) of rain is forecast over the next two days, before the rain moves away from Taiwan to the north.
The rain does not move far enough north however afford similar respite to China. Forecasts call for another 125-250mm (5-10 inches) in southern China over the next couple of days, including Hong Kong. Even here they’ve seen 165mm (6.5 inches) of rain in the past three days, almost half their June average rainfall of 394mm (15.5 inches).
Flooding has been causing problems elsewhere in the world. In Georgia, once part of the former Soviet Union, floods hit the northern district of Dushet’i on Monday. Forty houses were flooded and one man lost his life.
On Wednesday, just two days later, two hours of heavy rain brought further flooding and landslides to Dushet’i and surrounding villages, causing another fatality. The forecast here looks better for the weekend, but more persistent rain looks set to return for Monday next week.
The news coming out of Australia is much brighter. Rain has recently fallen across some parts of the drought-stricken country, allowing farmers to sow winter crops. Some of the farmers in South Australia have reported that they have received the follow-up rains they needed to make seeding successful, and things are looking good for the winter crop. Food for livestock is still being sought from elsewhere in the country however, because despite the welcome rain low soil temperatures will limit the growth of pastures through the winter months.
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