China’s top weather forecasting body has renewed a blue-level alert for heavy rainfall, as a major active rain band is projected to shift southward to southern Chinese regions between Thursday night and Friday. The blue alert marks the lowest severity warning in China’s four-tier national weather warning system, issued by the National Meteorological Center on Thursday.
According to the center’s forecast, portions of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Guangdong Province and Fujian Province will see heavy downpours, and some local areas may even experience extreme torrential rain between Thursday and Friday morning. Throughout this forecasting window, the core rain and convective weather system will track east and south, positioning South China as the central zone for precipitation accumulation. Specifically, parts of eastern and southern Guangxi, along with central and northern Guangdong, are projected to see heavy to torrential rainfall through the period.
Long before this incoming weather event, many regions located south of the Yangtze River have already faced weeks of persistent, above-average rainfall over the past 30 days. Data from Weather China, an official public weather website operated under the China Meteorological Administration, shows that multiple areas in Jiangxi Province and Hunan Province have recorded total precipitation exceeding 400 millimeters over the past month — twice the long-term average precipitation for the same calendar period in typical years.
For residents and local authorities navigating the prolonged wet weather, a brief reprieve is on the horizon. Starting Friday and extending through midday Sunday, the affected southern and Yangtze River basin regions are expected to see a temporary dry spell that will provide a window to carry out flood prevention inspections and post-rain damage assessments.
However, the dry conditions will not last long. Starting Sunday afternoon or evening, an entirely new round of rainfall is set to develop, bringing new wet weather to Chongqing Municipality, Guizhou Province, Hunan Province and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. By Monday and Tuesday of the following week, widespread rainfall will return to most areas south of the Yangtze River and across South China, the official weather website confirmed.