Storms kill at least eight in central China as Typhoon Bavi looms offshore

At least eight people have died in central China's Hubei Province following severe thunderstorms that battered the region on July 7. State media reported that the storms, accompanied by winds reaching up to 149 km/h, struck the cities of Huangshi, Huanggang, Ezhou, and Xianning on the evening of July 6.

Forecasters are warning of continued extreme weather across the country. The National Meteorological Centre has issued alerts for torrential rain, with rainfall expected to reach up to 260mm in the next 24 hours in the southeastern region of Guangxi and the eastern provinces of Jiangsu and Shandong. These conditions raise concerns about potential landslides and damage to agricultural crops, including corn, peanuts, and vegetables, in key farming provinces like Hubei and Shandong.

Meteorologists attribute these increasingly harsh weather conditions to climate change, which threatens tens of billions of dollars in annual economic losses for China. The country is also bracing for the impact of Super Typhoon Bavi, a powerful storm currently moving across the Pacific Ocean towards Taiwan. The typhoon was packing winds of up to 290 km/h as it passed over Guam and other Pacific islands on July 6.