It was a double bill of good news on the weather front yesterday as meteorologists withdrew a typhoon alert and announced the end of the plum rain season.
Shanghai, and the east coast of China in general, took less of a battering than feared after Super Typhoon Chan-Hom changed course and lost much of its strength shortly after making landfall close to the city late on Saturday.
National and local meteorologists feared the typhoon would be the most powerful to hit China in decades. But while neighboring Zhejiang Province was hit by winds of up to 162kph, Shanghai escaped almost unscathed as the typhoon veered back out to sea and toward the Korean peninsula.
Jinshan District saw the heaviest rains, recording 116.2 millimeters between 8pm on Friday and 8am yesterday, compared with 94.8mm at the benchmark Xujiahui weather station, according to the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau.
The highest winds, of up to 108kph, were recorded at Dishuihu Lake and Yangshan Port in the Pudong New Area, Wusong Port in Baoshan District and suburban Fengxian District.
The city's forecasters lifted their typhoon alert at 6am yesterday, the same day as the national meteorological office downgraded Chan-Hom to a tropical storm.
After more than 1,000 flights were canceled on Saturday, business was back almost to normal yesterday at the city's two airports. However, as of 4pm, more than 40 flights had been delayed for two hours or more as authorities tackled the backlog.
It was a similar story on the Metro, as Line 16, which was suspended at 1pm on Saturday, resumed normal operations yesterday, and Line 2 trains between Guanglan Road and Pudong International Airport stations got back up to top gear after running at reduced speeds due to the threat of high winds.
Following the meteorological trend, it appears that this year's plum rain season has also decided to give up the ghost.
Forecasters said yesterday that the "season" would officially come to an end today after 28 days of intermittent rains, ranging in dampness from drizzle to downpour.
While there was talk in some quarters of this year's season possibly challenging for the "longest in recorded history" title - currently held by 1954 with 58 days Ñ the precipitation petered out after a measly 28 days, albeit it five more than the annual average.
In consolation, readings taken at the Xujiahui monitoring facility showed that a total of 441.8mm of rain fell over the course of this year's season, almost twice the annual mean.
The prevalence of precipitation also pushed down the average temperature for "early July" to 22.8 degrees Celsius from a norm of 27.5 degrees, the meteorological bureau said.
With Chan-Hom and the plum rains now things of the past, the people of Shanghai can look forward to a few days of hot Ñ though not necessarily dry - conditions as the latest weather front wanders into town.
Sanfu, or the "hot season" on the ancient Chinese calendar, officially starts today and is forecast to last for 40 days, though nothing is guaranteed in the world of weather.
The mercury could reach 33 degrees today, but there is also the chance of thundershowers in some areas in the afternoon, the forecasters said.
Tomorrow and Wednesday will remain cloudy and hot, with the daily high temperature set to remain in the low 30s.
