A man checks flight information on an electric board at Shanghai Pudong International Airport yesterday. The heavy downpour led to the cancellation of about 200 flights. (CNS photo)
About 200 flights were cancelled and 300 more delayed at Hongqiao and Pudong airports due to heavy downpour which also caused massive traffic jams in the city.
The Shanghai Meteorological Bureau issued a yellow alert for rainstorm — the third highest of four levels — and a yellow alert for thunder at 9am yesterday. The alerts were in place untill 7pm last night. To make it worse, the bureau said the plum rains will stay for few days more.
The strong and unending rainstorm in East China affected flights to Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, the Shanghai Airport Authority said yesterday.
China Eastern and Shanghai Airlines canceled over 100 flights while many other flights were delayed for a long period of time. Shanghai-based Juneyao and Spring Airlines also canceled flights.
Most of the affected flights were scheduled to take off in the afternoon when visibility was poor. Hongqiao airport was hit the hardest at 4pm when it was covered with low clouds.
Hongqiao was forced to cancel 130 flights while 180 others were delayed. With the weather unlikely to change more delays and cancellations are expected today as well.
There were reports of traffic snarls across the city.
Yu Hualei, a white-collar worker, said her car was hit at the Luochuan Road entrance of the North-South Elevated Road in yesterday's deluge. She had driven for just 20 minutes when another car tried to overtake her and hit her, damaging her bumper and right lights.
"My mood was ruined by the accident and the unending rain the whole day," she said.
He Yi, a reporter, said he spent double the time on the Yan'an Elevated Road in the morning.
"I got stuck in the gridlock at the exit of the Hongxu Road. I had to be very careful as the downpour make it difficult to see the roads clearly," he said.
The weather bureau said Qingpu District received the maximum rainfall, recording 29mm between 8am and 5pm yesterday, followed by the Pudong New Area, which saw 25.5mm of rainfall.
The benchmark Xujiahui station had recorded 19.7mm.
As the rain belt lingers at the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, more torrential rain is expected today, said Zhu Jiehua, chief service officer at the bureau. The temperature will range between 23 and 21 degrees Celsius.
With the rain belt moving south, the downpour is expected to weaken tomorrow with dry days on the cards for Friday and Saturday.
