Typhoon Bavi makes landfall in China after brushing past Taiwan, belting southern Japan
Typhoon Bavi has made landfall in China near Wenzhou after causing significant rainfall and wind damage across Japan and Taiwan. Authorities have evacuated over 1.7 million people in Zhejiang province to mitigate risks from the storm's massive moisture bands.
Why it matters
Major weather events like Typhoon Bavi highlight the increasing vulnerability of densely populated coastal regions to extreme climate-driven storms.
Even as Bavi continues to slow and weaken on its northwesterly path over cooler seas, the typhoon is still a potent risk due to the sheer volume of moisture it holds within its rain bands, about the size of France from end to end.
Bavi had maximum sustained winds of 144 km/h, equivalent to Category 1 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, and is forecast to make landfall around Wenzhou, home to some 10 million people, early Sunday.
People ride electric scooters in the rain on Saturday as Typhoon Bavi approaches the coastal city of Wenzhou, China, which is home to about 10 million people. (Go Nakamura/Reuters) State media said more than 1.7 million people had been evacuated across Zhejiang province, where Wenzhou is located, and more than 100,000 each from neighboring Fujian province and Beijing, and some 34,000 from Shanghai.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in