Warm waters help Typhoons build strength and it is most common in China during this time of the year. On 11th July 2015, Typhoon Chan-hom was predicted to enter Chinese coast just south of Shanghai. The Typhoon changed course and thus, its strength declined rapidly. The International Saffir-Simpson Scale had assigned a category 4 level to the typhoon, which they soon downgraded to a tropical storm category on Sunday, 12th July. Meteorological agencies in China have a 4-tier weather warning system. Red denotes dangerous and severe weather, followed by orange, yellow and blue. Now tropical storm Chan-hom has been issued the “Blue” rainstorm alert.
Due to its changing course across yellow sea, Typhoon Chan-hom caused less battering to the coast than feared. No casualties have been reported so far, but the heavy rains have necessitated 1.1 million people to be evacuated from the flooded cities of Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui provinces. Provinces of Shandong, Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang are expected to continue to be plagued by heavy rainstorms.
In preparation and safety to safeguard against dangers of typhoon, economic activities in China came to a near standstill with cancellation of trains and flights and about 50,000 ships were ordered back to port.
