Climate News

Typhoon Dolphin floods Shanghai with record rain as Hong Kong logs its hottest day ever

Typhoon Dolphin made landfall near Yuhuan in China's Zhejiang province at about 5:30pm on Sunday 9 August, and more than a million people were moved to safety across eastern China. Al Jazeera called it the strongest storm to make landfall in China this year, with winds of up to 150km/h. The city of Wenzhou alone moved more than 900,000 people.

Shanghai took the heaviest rain. The Guardian reported that a weather station in central Shanghai recorded nearly 313mm of rain in the 24 hours to 7am on Monday, the most in more than 150 years of records. The hashtag "Shanghai turns into the sea" trended on Weibo, and Shanghai's two airports cancelled more than 1,300 flights. Far to the south, the storm pulled hot air over Hong Kong, which reached 36.9C, its highest official temperature since records began in 1884. The previous record was 36.6C in 2017.

How each outlet framed it

• The Guardian — the record rain in Shanghai and the risk of floods and landslides as the storm moved inland.
• Al Jazeera — an explainer on the evacuations, rivers at risk of major flooding and closed tourist sites.
• GMA News — the Philippine broadcaster led on the Hong Kong Observatory's record high.
• Malay Mail — the Malaysian site's headline on Hong Kong's record opened with "So hot".

Where the numbers differ: Shanghai's evacuation figure rose from 30,300, the number in Al Jazeera's explainer, to 215,600 by Sunday evening, according to The Guardian.

Meaning and limits: scientists say global warming makes extreme weather, including more powerful typhoons, more likely. The reports do not say how much warming contributed to this storm.