More typhoon rainstorms on the way
Typhoon Lekima flooded roads on Saturday.
Another round of intensive rainstorms is on its way, which will be about one to two hours before midnight when typhoon Lekima whistles past the Taihu Lake at the same latitude as Shanghai, the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau said.
As of 4pm, Minhang District had the biggest rainfall in Shanghai, reaching 213.3 millimeters. The hourly rainfall in the district between 2pm and 3pm reached 99.8 millimetres, according to the bureau. The strongest wind was at Yangshan Port, with gale force 12 to 13 as of 4pm.
The impact of Lekima to Shanghai is stronger than all the three typhoons which hit Shanghai last year, said Wu Rui, a chief service officer at the bureau.
The route of Lekima is similar to typhoon Matsa in 2005, which also landed in Zhejiang Province, said Wu.
"Many big trees were uprooted by Matsa, which brought severe gales and rainstorms to Shanghai, while the gale brought by Lekima is even stronger because it made a landfall in Zhejiang as super typhoon," said Wu.
The impact of a typhoon depends on structure, strength, scale, route and other meteorological systems, he said.
Lekima was originally forecast to hit Taiwan first, where the mountains on the island should have lessened its strength. Instead, it missed the island and headed straight to the mainland.
The rainstorms will weaken in Shanghai on Sunday morning, but further rains are forecast.
More than 2,800 streetside trees and 4,515 trees at city parks and greenery spaces fell down on Saturday under the power of Lekima, according to the Shanghai Greenery and Public Sanitation Bureau.
A total of 300 parks closed on Saturday, said the bureau.
The Shanghai Disney Resort which closed on Saturday will reopen at 11am on Sunday.
