Shanghai cancels at least 1,300 flights as Typhoon Dolphin hits China's eastern coast | CBC News

Tropical storm Dolphin floods eastern China, grounds hundreds of flights

Typhoon intensifies monsoon rains in Philippines

Typhoon Dolphin hits China's east coast, forcing more than 1 million people to relocate

Shanghai airports cancelled hundreds of flights on Monday as tropical storm Dolphin dumped heavy rain in eastern China, causing flooding in places after making landfall as a typhoon the previous day.

Shanghai's Hongqiao and Pudong airports cancelled more than 900 flights, or about 40 per cent of those expected, after about 1,300 were cancelled the day before, according to Shanghai Airport Group.

Shanghai also suspended some of its metro lines on Monday, and China Railway Chengdu Group suspended 115 trains, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Authorities warned of risks of severe flooding and landslides in some areas. State broadcaster CCTV reported that authorities in Yueqing, a city in Zhejiang province, searched for people trapped in flooded homes.

The China Meteorological Administration said Dolphin was moving northwest at 15 to 20 kilometres per hour and was expected to continue weakening.

Dolphin made landfall Sunday evening in Taizhou, Zhejiang province, with winds of 151 kilometres per hour, after bringing heavy rain to northern Taiwan over the weekend.

Truck flips onto its side as typhoon winds pound Chinese city

Powerful winds and lashing rain flipped over a truck in Zhejiang's Wenzhou, a video posted on TikTok on Sunday showed. It was not clear what happened to the driver.

Dolphin had forced at least 760,000 people to preemptively relocate, including more than 390,000 people in Taizhou. Authorities in Shanghai and Fujian province evacuated more than 210,000 and 160,000 people, respectively, from riskier areas.

Authorities in Zhejiang's capital city, Hangzhou, temporarily closed its iconic West Lake scenic spots as well as temples, parks and museums and will reopen on Tuesday.

Elsewhere, tropical storm Chan-hom was heading toward Japan's Pacific coast. The storm had 83 kilometre-per-hour winds Monday morning and was forecast to strengthen slightly before landfall Tuesday into Wednesday, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

Many streets in Shanghai's suburban Jiading and Qingpu districts around the city centre remained waterlogged, according to livestreams shared by residents on social media. The live videos, not verified by Reuters, showed people wading through knee-high murky water.

"It rained almost all night last night. When I woke up this morning, I found the neighbourhood flooded, and the streets were severely flooded," said 39-year-old Hou Lina, who works in sales in Jiading in Shanghai.

"I've lived in Shanghai for 10 years, and this is the first time I've experienced such inconvenience from a typhoon. This is the first time I've encountered such widespread flooding," she told Reuters.

Typhoon Dolphin hits China's east coast, over 1 million evacuated

In Shanghai's Jinshan, the district authority said non-essential businesses and organizations could temporarily halt operations, classes, outdoor events and transit services, amid forecasts of continued strong winds and heavy rain on Monday.

Authorities warned that 74 rivers in the Taihu Lake basin and the coastal areas of eastern Zhejiang have exceeded warning levels, and that flood risks for small and medium-sized rivers in heavy rainfall areas are high.

Beijing expected to be hit with 'significant rainfall'

The strongest typhoon to hit China this year, Dolphin is forecast to move deeper inland to the central provinces of Hubei and Henan in the coming days while also pushing moisture north.

Authorities in the capital Beijing raised warnings for torrential rain and said the city was prepared to activate its flood control response on Tuesday morning.

Beijing is expected to experience "significant rainfall" from Tuesday until Thursday, with authorities warning of the risk of flash floods in the city and landslides in the surrounding mountainous areas.

The typhoon had already travelled 6,000 kilometres before it made landfall, giving it a life cycle three times longer than an ordinary typhoon, and bringing with it an ultra-large cloud system that enveloped China's east, CCTV said in another report.

Dolphin's impact was also being compared to Doksuri in 2023. That typhoon crossed the country after causing destruction in southeastern Fujian province, unleashing record-breaking rainfall in Beijing.

As the storm clouds meet colder air in the north, Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei will need to brace for heavy rain into Thursday, CCTV said.

Hong Kong, on China's southern coast, has seen extreme heat due to Dolphin, recording its hottest day ever on Sunday at 36.9 degrees Celsius, the highest since records began in 1884, according to the Hong Kong Observatory, the territory's weather body.

Tropical Storm Risk (TSR) said it expected the 2026 northwest Pacific typhoon season to be one of the most active on record and to include 28 tropical storms, 20 typhoons and 13 intense typhoons.

TSR said the ongoing strong El Niño event, high activity to date and weaker-than-normal trade winds across the northwest Pacific basin, were key reasons for the intensity of the typhoon season.

Typhoon Bavi makes landfall in China after brushing past Taiwan, belting southern Japan

Dolphin did not directly hit the Philippines, but it helped intensify seasonal monsoon rains that set off flooding and landslides on the main northern island region of Luzon.

A landslide buried three houses Sunday night in the northern mountain resort city of Baguio, killing five people with at least five others missing, officials said. A frantic search for the missing continued Monday despite intermittent rains. Three people were dug out alive and brought to a hospital, Baguio officials said.

The deaths from the mudslide raised the death toll in nearly a week of torrential rains, floods and a tropical storm last week in the northern Luzon region to 15, the government's Office of Civil Defence said.

More than a million people were affected by the heavy monsoon rains and floods, including about 98,000 who were displaced from homes.