In-fa unleashes slow-motion disaster in eastern China
By
Brandon Buckingham, AccuWeather Meteorologist &
Robert Richards, AccuWeather meteorologist
Updated Jul 28, 2021 9:49 AM EDT
Typhoon In-fa dropped heavy rain on China's eastern coast, leaving many people stuck in rising floodwaters. Here, rescuers come to the aid of one stranded driver.
Tropical Depression In-fa continued to pummel eastern China in a slow-motion disaster Tuesday. Despite it losing wind intensity over land after making landfall Sunday afternoon, its slow forward speed allowed the system to continually unleash torrential rainfall, which has already topped 2 feet in some locations. Major cities like Shanghai, which is home to more than 25 million people, were feeling the storm’s blow.
Due to the slow-moving nature of the storm, rainfall totals from In-fa could become extreme. A swath of 1 to 2 feet (300 to 600 cm) of rain with an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 4 feet (1,200 cm) is expected across the provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu. Rainfall of this nature can produce life-threatening flooding, mudslides and an array of other issues.
The slow-moving nature of storm is reminiscent of Hurricane Harvey, which struck Texas and crawled across the state with extreme rainfall for several days in August 2018, according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski. More than 60 inches of rain inundated areas northeast of Houston, leading to catastrophic flooding.
Typhoon "In-fa" arrived in Nanjing. The streets in the wind and heavy rain poured, in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu province, 27 July 2021. (Reuters)
At least one location in Zhoushan City, where In-fa made landfall, picked up 24.1 inches (612 mm) of rain from Sunday into Monday. Since Friday, when the outer rain bands of In-fa began to push into the region, parts of the city have picked up at least 30 inches (764 mm) of rain.
This amount of rainfall and anticipated flooding can be catastrophic to the region, but impacts from In-fa might be felt globally as port operations in Shanghai and Ningbo grind to a halt.
In-fa has already produced wind gusts in excess of 58 mph (93 km/h) in the city of Shanghai. Trash was also pushed onshore in Shanghai by In-fa’s storm surge.
In-fa officially made landfall in the coastal area of Zhoushan City, which is located in China's Zhejiang province, at 12:30 p.m. local time on Sunday afternoon. At landfall, In-fa's strength was the equivalent of a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale in the Atlantic or East Pacific basins.
As the storm slowly moves inland through early week, wind intensity will continue to be lost due to the interaction with land. By Monday morning, the storm had lost wind intensity and had stepped down in designation from a typhoon to a severe tropical storm. By Monday evening, the storm was designated as a tropical storm, falling to its status as a tropical depression on Tuesday.
This satellite image, captured around midday, local time, on Monday, July 26, 2021, shows In-fa over eastern China. (RAMMB/CIRA)
Due to catastrophic impacts expected from torrential rainfall, strong winds and rough seas which can have drastic economic impacts, In-fa has been rated as a 5 on the AccuWeather RealImpact™ Scale for Hurricanes.
The AccuWeather RealImpact™ Scale for Hurricanes is a 6-point scale with ratings of less than one and 1 to 5 and is based on a broad range of important factors in contrast to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, which classifies storms by wind speed only.
In order to better communicate a more comprehensive representation of the potential impact of a storm to lives and livelihoods, AccuWeather's scale covers not only wind speed, but also flooding rain, storm surge and economic damage and loss.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP
As In-fa spins along the eastern coast of China over the next few days, an area of sinking air will develop farther inland to balance out the rising air associated with the storm. This sinking air will help to bring drier conditions to Henan province, which was doused with historic rainfall and deadly flooding last week. The death toll from the disastrous flooding rose to 69 on Monday, according to The Washington Post. More than two dozen people remained missing, the Paper, a Shanghai-based publication reported.
The West Pacific will remain active beyond In-fa. AccuWeather forecasters are also closely monitoring Tropical Storm Nepartak, which is forecast to track toward Japan this week. The storm had already triggers disruptions and delays at the Tokyo Olympics. Enhanced rainfall will likely occur across northern Japan. There could even be additional tropical development later this week or upcoming weekend to the south of Japan.
Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier, Spectrum, FuboTV, Philo, and Verizon Fios.
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News / Hurricane
In-fa unleashes slow-motion disaster in eastern China
By Brandon Buckingham, AccuWeather Meteorologist & Robert Richards, AccuWeather meteorologist
Updated Jul 28, 2021 9:49 AM EDT
Typhoon In-fa dropped heavy rain on China's eastern coast, leaving many people stuck in rising floodwaters. Here, rescuers come to the aid of one stranded driver.
Tropical Depression In-fa continued to pummel eastern China in a slow-motion disaster Tuesday. Despite it losing wind intensity over land after making landfall Sunday afternoon, its slow forward speed allowed the system to continually unleash torrential rainfall, which has already topped 2 feet in some locations. Major cities like Shanghai, which is home to more than 25 million people, were feeling the storm’s blow.
Due to the slow-moving nature of the storm, rainfall totals from In-fa could become extreme. A swath of 1 to 2 feet (300 to 600 cm) of rain with an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 4 feet (1,200 cm) is expected across the provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu. Rainfall of this nature can produce life-threatening flooding, mudslides and an array of other issues.
The slow-moving nature of storm is reminiscent of Hurricane Harvey, which struck Texas and crawled across the state with extreme rainfall for several days in August 2018, according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski. More than 60 inches of rain inundated areas northeast of Houston, leading to catastrophic flooding.
Typhoon "In-fa" arrived in Nanjing. The streets in the wind and heavy rain poured, in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu province, 27 July 2021. (Reuters)
At least one location in Zhoushan City, where In-fa made landfall, picked up 24.1 inches (612 mm) of rain from Sunday into Monday. Since Friday, when the outer rain bands of In-fa began to push into the region, parts of the city have picked up at least 30 inches (764 mm) of rain.
This amount of rainfall and anticipated flooding can be catastrophic to the region, but impacts from In-fa might be felt globally as port operations in Shanghai and Ningbo grind to a halt.
In-fa has already produced wind gusts in excess of 58 mph (93 km/h) in the city of Shanghai. Trash was also pushed onshore in Shanghai by In-fa’s storm surge.
In-fa officially made landfall in the coastal area of Zhoushan City, which is located in China's Zhejiang province, at 12:30 p.m. local time on Sunday afternoon. At landfall, In-fa's strength was the equivalent of a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale in the Atlantic or East Pacific basins.
As the storm slowly moves inland through early week, wind intensity will continue to be lost due to the interaction with land. By Monday morning, the storm had lost wind intensity and had stepped down in designation from a typhoon to a severe tropical storm. By Monday evening, the storm was designated as a tropical storm, falling to its status as a tropical depression on Tuesday.
This satellite image, captured around midday, local time, on Monday, July 26, 2021, shows In-fa over eastern China. (RAMMB/CIRA)
Due to catastrophic impacts expected from torrential rainfall, strong winds and rough seas which can have drastic economic impacts, In-fa has been rated as a 5 on the AccuWeather RealImpact™ Scale for Hurricanes.
The AccuWeather RealImpact™ Scale for Hurricanes is a 6-point scale with ratings of less than one and 1 to 5 and is based on a broad range of important factors in contrast to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, which classifies storms by wind speed only.
In order to better communicate a more comprehensive representation of the potential impact of a storm to lives and livelihoods, AccuWeather's scale covers not only wind speed, but also flooding rain, storm surge and economic damage and loss.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP
As In-fa spins along the eastern coast of China over the next few days, an area of sinking air will develop farther inland to balance out the rising air associated with the storm. This sinking air will help to bring drier conditions to Henan province, which was doused with historic rainfall and deadly flooding last week. The death toll from the disastrous flooding rose to 69 on Monday, according to The Washington Post. More than two dozen people remained missing, the Paper, a Shanghai-based publication reported.
The West Pacific will remain active beyond In-fa. AccuWeather forecasters are also closely monitoring Tropical Storm Nepartak, which is forecast to track toward Japan this week. The storm had already triggers disruptions and delays at the Tokyo Olympics. Enhanced rainfall will likely occur across northern Japan. There could even be additional tropical development later this week or upcoming weekend to the south of Japan.
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Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier, Spectrum, FuboTV, Philo, and Verizon Fios.
Report a Typo