July 20, 2020-July 26, 2021
Flooding in Central China
A slow-moving rainstorm in mid-July 2021 caused rivers and reservoirs to spill over their banks, leading to deadly flooding in central China. A new storm has now come ashore, bringing even more rain to the country.
Flooding from the mid-July rainstorm was still visible on July 26, 2021, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a false-color image of northern Henan province. For comparison, the same area is shown on July 20, 2020.
According to news reports, the rainstorm dropped a year’s worth of rain on Zhengzhou, the province’s capital city, over the span of three days. The storm then tracked north and dropped 26 centimeters (10 inches) of rain within a span of two hours on the city of Xinxiang. The region’s network of rivers and reservoirs overflowed, and floodwaters submerged transportation infrastructure and buildings, trapping many people and affecting millions.
Forecasters are now watching the progression of Tropical Cyclone In-fa. After lashing Japan, the Philippines, and Taiwan, Typhoon In-fa reached eastern China’s coast on July 25 with sustained winds equivalent to a category-1 hurricane. Tens of thousands of people evacuated Shanghai ahead of the storm, which brought high winds and heavy rain.
This image, acquired at 1:45 p.m. local time (5:25 a.m. Universal Time) on July 27, 2021, with the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the NOAA-NASA Suomi NPP satellite, shows the storm moving inland toward the northwest. In-fa has weakened to a tropical storm and will continue to break up in the coming days. But the slow-moving storm continues to unleash torrential rain and could soon escalate the flooding situation in Henan province.
References & Resources
- AccuWeather (2021, July 27) In-fa unleashes slow-motion disaster in eastern China. Accessed July 27, 2021.
- Al Jazeera (2021, July 23) Fresh floods in central China as typhoon heads towards east coast. Accessed July 26, 2021.
- AP News (2021, July 26) More rain to hit Chinaâs flood-ravaged Henan province. Accessed July 27, 2021.
- The Guardian (2021, July 23) China floods: thousands trapped without fresh water as rain moves north. Accessed July 26, 2021.
- Japan Meteorological Agency (2021, July 26) RSMC Tropical Cyclone Information). Accessed July 26, 2021.
- Joint Typhoon Warning Center (2021, July 26) Tropical Storm 09W (In-Fa). Accessed July 26, 2021.
- NBC News (2021, July 25) Tens of thousands evacuated as typhoon In-fa makes landfall in eastern China. Accessed July 27, 2021.
- The Washington Post (2021, July 26) Search for China flood survivors turns desperate as Typhoon In-Fa hits east coast. Accessed July 27, 2021.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview . Text by Kathryn Hansen .
