The worst is over! Typhoon alert lifted as Lekima weakens and moves north

The Shanghai Meteorological Bureau lifted the yellow typhoon alert and blue rainstorm alert at 6am on Sunday as typhoon Lekima moved north toward Shandong Province, and the city began to resume some semblance of normalcy.

The typhoon dumped heavy rain on the city, flooded some streets, uprooted trees and shut down transport services and tourist attractions.

The Metro system returned to normal operations, and Shanghai airports are working through a backlog of passengers stranded by cancelled flights.

A blue alert for gale-force winds had been issued, warning that winds in coastal areas could reach level 8 on Sunday due to the outer bands of the storm’s circulation.

Showers are forecast, with the temperature rising to 31 degrees Celsius. The mercury is forecast to climb to 34 on Monday, under cloudy skies.

Lekima weakened to a tropical storm from a strong tropical storm at 8pm on Saturday after making landfall in the city of Huzhou in Zhejiang Province.

The eye of the storm was centered in the city of Nantong in Jiangsu Province at 5am on Sunday, with a gale force level of 9, according to the National Meteorological Center.

The storm is forecast to move north, reaching the western coastal areas of the Yellow Sea on Sunday noon.

It is forecast to make a second landing in coastal areas of Rizhao and Haiyang in China’s Shandong Province on Sunday night as a tropical storm or strong tropical storm, with a gale force level of 9 to 10 and a wind speed of 23 to 28 meters per second, according to the center.

Then the storm is expected to weaken again over land.