Rainy weather to end in south next week and then move north

A main road leading to Hengdong county, Hunan province, was submerged by floodwaters on Thursday. The levee of a nearby river had two bursts of about 50 and 30 meters on Wednesday, leaving several villages soaked.

Heavy rain that has battered South China for about a month will last till Tuesday and then move to North China.

The National Meteorological Center said on Thursday that for the next five days, there will be two more rounds of heavy rain in South China, especially in Hubei, Hunan, Anhui, Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces, with an accumulated precipitation of 100 to 200 millimeters.

Fang Chong, a chief forecaster of the center, said the subtropical high has remained in southern areas for a long time.

"From July 12 to 14, heavy rain of about 150 mm will move eastward to the provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian. For the next two days, it will go northward to Anhui province," he said.

"After July 17, rainfall in the south will decline and hot weather will linger in these areas. Meanwhile, rainfall will begin to increase in northern areas," he added.

Since the flooding season began in June, southern provinces have received seven rounds of heavy downpours with average precipitation of about 476 mm, up 51 percent compared to the same period in previous years, the center said.

The continuous heavy rain has caused natural disasters including landslides and flooding.

Twenty-two people have been killed by disasters caused by heavy rain in Jiangxi province since June, the local flood control headquarters said at a news conference on Thursday. Through July 9, the Ministry of Emergency Management has organized the rescue efforts of about 6,400 people stranded by floods nationwide.

More than 1.63 million people in seven provincial regions in southern China, including Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hunan and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region have been affected by the heavy rainfall, the ministry said.

About 1,600 houses collapsed, and 126,100 hectares of farmland have been hit by the floods, leading to economic losses of 2.69 billion yuan ($390 million).