China's national television CCTV on April 1 quoted information from the Ministry of Irrigation of this country as saying that the flood season in China in 2026, starting from April 1, is forecast to record more severe flooding in the northern region and many storms may move northward, affecting inland areas of China.
It is forecasted that from April to May, some areas in the Mekong Delta, Fujian, Zhejiang and the midstream of the Yangtze River may record floods exceeding the warning level.
CCTV's latest storm and flood forecast also noted that southwestern China may experience droughts this year.
Accordingly, from June to August, some areas, including the Tung Lieu River basin, Hai Ha River and Chau Giang River, may experience major flooding.
Also during this period, the central and downstream areas of the Yangtze River and northern Xinjiang also recorded droughts due to high temperatures and low rainfall.
Also related to the weather in China, on March 31, Xinhua News Agency reported that the recent severe convective weather in southern China, causing heavy rain, strong gusts of wind and hail in Guangzhou and neighboring cities, shows the increasing challenges posed by climate change.
On March 31, Foshan city, Guangdong province recorded gusts of up to 129 km/h, equivalent to the intensity of a storm when making landfall. Level 12 winds also appeared in many urban areas.
Mr. Wu Hongyu - chief expert at the Guangdong Provincial Climate Center, under the Guangdong Meteorological Bureau - said that what is worrying is not the intensity of a single phenomenon, but the increasingly obvious trend of extreme weather and climate phenomena appearing more frequently, stronger and more severely in recent years.
Data shows that in the past 65 years, the average annual temperature of Guangdong has increased significantly, with an increase of 0.22 degrees Celsius per decade. The average number of hot sunny days also increased by 3.5 days per decade. In particular, the number of heavy rain days skyrocketed to a record level of 10.7 days in 2024, compared to only 3.6 days in 1963.
