Typhoon Dolphin brings flooding and flight disruptions to Shanghai

Typhoon Dolphin drenched eastern China after landfall in Zhejiang, flooding streets in Shanghai and forcing 943 flight cancellations at the city’s two airports, The Straits Times reported.

Dolphin made landfall on Sunday evening with maximum sustained winds of 151 km/h near its centre in Zhejiang, the province south and west of Shanghai, the report said. It later weakened to a tropical storm, but its remaining rain clouds continued to soak Anhui, Jiangsu and Shandong on Monday.

Many streets in Shanghai’s suburban Jiading and Qingpu districts remained waterlogged on Monday morning, according to live-streams shared by residents on social media. The report said Reuters had not verified the videos, which showed people wading through knee-high murky water.

State broadcaster CCTV said Shanghai’s two airports cancelled 943 flights because of the typhoon, cutting capacity by nearly 40% on Monday. A TikTok video posted on Sunday showed strong winds and lashing rain flipping over a truck in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, though the report said it was unclear what happened to the driver.

The report described Dolphin as “the strongest typhoon to hit China this year” and said it was forecast to move deeper inland toward Hubei and Henan while pushing moisture north. Beijing authorities raised torrential rain warnings and said the city was ready to activate its flood control response on Tuesday morning.

CCTV said Dolphin had travelled 6,000 km before landfall, giving it a life cycle three times longer than an ordinary typhoon and bringing an “ultra-large cloud system” over eastern China. Its impact was being compared with Doksuri in 2022, which crossed China after damaging Fujian and brought record rainfall to Beijing.