After making two landfalls in Zhejiang on August 9, Typhoon "Baitun" did not dissipate the way ordinary typhoons do once weakened to a tropical storm. Instead it pushed north and west, building a record-breaking extreme rainfall chain across East China and North China. Seventeen national meteorological stations in Zhejiang broke their August rainfall records; Shanghai's Xujiahui station logged 316.1 mm of extraordinary rain followed by another 100 mm+ downpour; seven districts of Beijing issued red rainstorm warnings — the magnitude of this event already exceeded that of Typhoon "Bawi," which had taken a similar path earlier.
Baitun's "abnormal" behavior is not an isolated event but the result of three forces superimposed: its own large cloud system and ample moisture reserves, with the residual vortex meeting cold air to the north as it moved north; the easterly winds from Typhoon "Canhong" to its east relaying warm, moist Pacific air that connected with Baitun's own northerly easterlies; and the windward slopes of the Hubei–Henan–Anhui mountains lifting that moisture into heavier rainfall. The forecasting difficulty with extreme rainfall is not the "magnitude" but the "path" — around the 12th the residual vortex is expected to meander and stall near the Hubei–Henan–Anhui border, with the rain band then lifting north and the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region entering a heavy-to-torrential rain period.
A Typhoon That Won't Dissipate
Meteorological agencies kept repeating that "a weakening typhoon circulation does not mean the typhoon's impact is over." Baitun's residual circulation carried a vast stock of warm, moist air northward; its northern easterlies were blocked by the Taihang, Funiu, Song, and Dabie mountains, forcing the moist air to climb rapidly up the windward slopes where it cooled, condensed, and produced an intense orographic rainfall effect. The southeast slopes of the Taihang range, the western mountains of Henan, the Dabie mountains of Anhui, and the northwest mountains of Hubei became the rainfall-amplification core — the high-incidence zones for this extreme event.
Shanghai's rain had a different mechanism. Xujiahui station logged 397.6 mm over 48 hours. The explanation from an analyst at China Weather was the "train effect": Shanghai sat on the right side of the typhoon's track where moisture transport is strongest, with the outer spiral rain bands passing repeatedly over the city and the rainfall continuously accumulating.
The Two-Typhoon Relay
Canhong's arrival gave the rain a second engine. Although Canhong was only a tropical storm, its circulation was large and its northern-side easterlies were pronounced, funneling warm, moist Pacific air into China via the easterly flow. Connecting with Baitun's northern easterlies, it played an important role in maintaining Baitun's circulation and in the heavy precipitation over East, Central, and North China. The China Meteorological Administration judged that Baitun's residual vortex would later combine deeply with the westerly belt's upper trough and cold air, opening a new round of cross-regional heavy rainfall — the rain band would steadily shift north from August 11 to 12, with western and central-northern Henan, southern Hebei, and southeastern Shanxi becoming the core areas, where cumulative rainfall could reach 400 to 600 mm in some places.
The two-typhoon relay is an easily underestimated rainfall-amplification mechanism: a single typhoon's residual circulation is normally "a spent arrow," but the continuous moisture feed from a new typhoon to its east effectively keeps refueling this northward moisture channel — the typhoon's intensity may weaken, but the rainfall chain is lengthened precisely by the "relay."
The Response Chain of the Emergency System
Facing this rain, the response was layered from central to local government: the National Development and Reform Commission urgently allocated 200 million yuan from the central budget investment to support Zhejiang's post-disaster recovery; the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Emergency Management pre-allocated 180 million yuan in disaster relief funds (120 million for flood and typhoon control, plus 60 million for drought relief); the Ministry of Water Resources launched a Level-IV flood defense emergency response for Hebei, Shandong, Henan, and Hubei, warning that the Yellow River, Taihu Lake, and Chuhe River could see numbered floods; Beijing's seven districts upgraded to red rainstorm warnings and issued the "Ten Red Lines" public-protection guide; Tianjin activated a Level-II flood-control emergency response; Zhengzhou activated Level-III; multiple suburban rail lines in Beijing suspended service; the Baidui Cup tournament was postponed.
Zhai Liang, chief forecaster at the Beijing Meteorological Observatory: the circulation pattern of this event has similarities with the 2023 Typhoon "Doksuri," but is more complex — beyond the northward-moving typhoon, there is also a westerly trough and the influence of another typhoon to the east, "you cannot compare them so directly."
The response to extreme rainfall is shifting from "referencing historical cases" to "rolling analysis of each circulation pattern." Zhai Liang's reminder is worth noting: fitting every extreme rainfall event into the template of the previous one is precisely where forecasting and response are most likely to fail.
Increment: The Northward Shift of the Emergency Response — Tianjin's Level-II Response and Fengtai's Parking-Lot Inventory (2026-08-11)
Before Baitun's residual rain band even arrived, North China's emergency system was already moving. On the morning of August 10, Tianjin issued an orange rainstorm warning, forecasting heavy-to-torrential rain from the night of August 11 through August 13, with the city planning to launch a Level-II flood-control emergency response on the morning of August 11. Tianjin's supporting measures were quite concrete: schools to suspend classes as appropriate, enterprises and public institutions to stagger working hours, the public to stay away from road bridges, culverts, and low-lying road sections, and to call 119 or 110 in emergencies.
Beijing's side prepared an even more detailed plan. Based on the meteorological forecast (that Baitun's residual vortex may cause multiple rounds of heavy rainfall from August 11 through the weekend), Fengtai District published a list of 29 elevated emergency evacuation parking lots, clearly flagging the waterlogging risks of low-lying roads, sunken overpasses, river-side sections, and underpasses, and reminding the public to stay away from street trees, outdoor billboards, construction enclosures, and other facilities prone to toppling.
These two pieces of emergency information fill a previous gap: the meteorological forecast and the central funding arrangements had been documented, but there was no cross-section showing "how the city catches this rain." Tianjin's Level-II response and Fengtai's parking-lot inventory are precisely the two ends of the same logic — once the warning is issued, the city marks the risk points in advance and arranges the evacuation moves in advance. The work of flood defense is done before the rain, and this is precisely the segment most easily overlooked in the "extreme rainfall chain" narrative yet most revealing of governance capability.
Fengtai District's 29 elevated emergency evacuation parking lots: clear warnings on waterlogging risks at low-lying roads, sunken overpasses, river-side sections, and underpasses; stay away from street trees, outdoor billboards, construction enclosures, and other facilities prone to toppling (Chang'anjie Zhishi, a commentary account affiliated with Beijing Daily, republishing Beijing Daily, 2026-08-11).
Section Two — Beijing's Level-II Flood-Control Response: An Urban-Governance Cross-Section of Baitun's Northward Push (2026-08-11)
Three days after landfall, the residual vortex of "Baitun" pushed the rainfall core into North China. On August 11 at 7:00, the typhoon's center moved into Qichun County, Huanggang, Hubei Province, still at tropical-storm intensity (Force 8 / 20 m/s), moving west-northwest and slowly weakening; the northern-side circulation brought the rainfall core to Henan, where central Henan saw extraordinary rainstorms (250–300 mm).
Beijing activated a citywide Level-II flood-control emergency response at 9:00 on August 11: from 12:00 onward, personnel responsible for flood-prone points in the urban core were to be on post with prepositioned pumping equipment; by 18:00, transfers of residents at risk in mountain villages and low-lying courtyards were to be completed; from August 12, enterprises and public institutions were urged to adopt flexible or staggered working hours, schools to suspend classes and outdoor teaching as appropriate, and organized outdoor sports activities to pause; temporary traffic control was to be imposed on key hazardous zones and main emergency-response roads. Tianjin likewise planned to launch a Level-II flood-control emergency response on the morning of August 11, urging staggered working hours and conditional school suspensions.
Beijing's flood-control response in this round exhibits the same governance logic as recorded earlier in this page (Tianjin / Fengtai): advance warning, prepositioned points, staggered commuting, conditional school closures. The difference is one of scale — the capital's Level-II response layers flexible work arrangements and school suspensions on top, lifting the response to the "extreme rainfall chain" from the municipal level to the city-operations level. Baitun's track is thereby fully visible: landfall in Zhejiang → extraordinary rain in Henan → Beijing–Tianjin Level-II response, a single rainfall chain stretching from the southeast coast deep into the heartland of North China.
Section Three — "Degeneration" Is Not the End: The Legendary Endurance King at 15 Days and 3 Hours (2026-08-11)
At 18:46 on August 11, Chang'anjie Zhishi republishing the China Meteorological Administration: Baitun formed at 14:00 on July 27 and was officially declassified at 17:00 on August 11, living 15 days and 3 hours and trekking 7,100 km — "a worthy legendary endurance king."
But declassification does not mean the impact is over. The China Meteorological Administration specifically reminded that the Huang-Huai and North China regions will see further heavy rainfall from the residual circulation. In other words, this typhoon's "official lifespan" is over, but its moisture tail is still feeding rain into North China — forming a temporal relay with Beijing's Level-II response and Henan's extraordinary rainfall already recorded above.
"Declassification" is the endpoint on the meteorological bureau's ledger, not on the rainfall chain. Baitun completed 7,100 km in 15 days and 3 hours, an unusually long impact window in recent years — and its residual circulation is set to deliver another round of heavy rain across the Huang-Huai and North China. Sections One through Three of this page together present the full chain: landfall in Zhejiang → extraordinary rain in Henan → Beijing–Tianjin Level-II response → post-declassification residual rainfall. For urban flood defense, the typhoon's lifecycle exam often really begins only after the official designation disappears.
Section Four — The Seven-District Rainfall Inventory: Refining Beijing's Level-II Response (2026-08-12)
At midnight on August 12, Chang'anjie Zhishi republishing Beijing Daily refined the rainfall expectations of Beijing's Level-II flood-control response down to the district level: from the evening of August 11 through the daytime of August 13, most parts of Beijing will see 100 mm of cumulative rainfall in 6 hours and 150 mm+ in 24 hours; in seven districts — Tongzhou, Daxing, Fangshan, Mentougou, Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, Huairou, and Fengtai — cumulative rainfall can reach 150 mm+ in 6 hours and 200 mm+ in 24 hours.
Response measures were escalated accordingly: the citywide Level-II flood-control emergency response was activated at 9:00 on August 11; from August 12, enterprises and public institutions were urged to adopt flexible or staggered working hours, schools to suspend classes and offline training as appropriate, outdoor teaching to halt, and organized outdoor sports activities to pause; temporary traffic control was imposed on key hazardous zones and main emergency-response roads; public transport was to apply closures of affected stations and service suspensions according to the risk situation. Residents in at-risk mountain villages, stranded tourists, urban dilapidated housing, and people threatened by low-lying courtyards were to be transferred as early as possible, and not to return on their own after evacuation.
From "citywide Level-II response" to a "seven-district 200 mm" inventory, this round of flood defense in Beijing has pushed "advance warning" all the way down to the rainfall-magnitude level: who is at greatest risk, how heavy the rain will be, when schools close, which roads are controlled — everything is laid out in advance. This forms an isomorphism with the "Tianjin Level-II response + Fengtai parking-lot inventory" recorded earlier in this page: once the warning is issued, the city marks the risk points in advance and arranges the evacuation moves in advance. By the time Baitun's track reaches North China, what is being tested is no longer the meteorological forecast, but the speed at which the city translates the forecast into action.
Section Five — Why Are Typhoons Clustering? Xiang Chunyi's Reading of "August Typhoon Anxiety" (2026-08-12)
On the afternoon of August 12, another typhoon, "Langka," formed — the 17th typhoon of this year. A Beijing Daily reporter conducted an exclusive interview with Xiang Chunyi, chief forecaster at the China Meteorological Administration, to answer a question emerging from public opinion: why has this year drawn special attention to typhoons?
Xiang Chunyi offered two reasons. The first was "clustering": since July this year, four typhoons — "Maysak," "Bawi," "Hongxia," and "Baitun" — have made landfall in China one after another. "From early July through early August, each ten-day period has seen a landfall, and the typhoons have moved deep inland after landfall, with wide-ranging wind and rain impacts, even producing 'twin typhoons' or 'triple typhoons' — multiple typhoons co-existing at the same time." The second was "long-distance oceanic onslaught": Bawi and Baitun successively made landfall in Zhejiang, and the similarity is extremely high — both were generated over the open ocean, exploded rapidly, maintained super-typhoon intensity for a long time, traversed thousands of kilometers to assault China, hit exactly the same landfall counties and cities, and "Baitun" was even stronger and had a wider impact range.
The first four sections of this page recorded the full chain of Baitun from formation to declassification (landfall in Zhejiang → extraordinary rain in Henan → Beijing–Tianjin Level-II response → seven-district rainfall inventory → post-declassification residual rainfall); this section adds the meteorologist's "meta-explanation," placing Baitun back within the August typhoon sequence: it is not only "a legendary endurance king," but also a member of the "long-distance oceanic onslaught" family of typhoons, forming a highly similar sister-sample with Bawi. Xiang Chunyi's analysis explains the cause of the "unprecedented public attention": it is not media hype, but the genuine sense of abnormality produced by clustering, similarity, and deep inland penetration.
Xiang Chunyi dissects "typhoon anxiety" into two verifiable facts: the frequency (landfalls in every ten-day period, twin-typhoon and triple-typhoon co-existence), and the same type (Bawi and Baitun's oceanic explosion and identical landfall locations). Combined, these two facts answer the public's most basic question — are there really more typhoons this year, and stronger ones? The meteorological bureau did not use vague phrasing like "historically rare," but offered a comparable sequence: Baitun's legendary endurance is an individual within the sequence; the clustering and the same-type pattern within the sequence itself are the real abnormality of this year.
Section Six — 20,000 Central Disaster-Relief Items: The North China Bill of Baitun's Residual Circulation (2026-08-12)
On the evening of August 12, the Office of the National Commission for Disaster Reduction and Relief, together with the Ministry of Emergency Management, responding to the heavy rainfall from the residual circulation of this year's 13th typhoon "Baitun" and in line with the resettlement and relief needs of affected residents in Hebei, Henan and other places, coordinated with the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration to dispatch 20,000 central disaster-relief items — folding beds, quilts, blankets, and household emergency kits — to support resettlement, relief, and livelihood security for affected residents.
The first four sections of this page recorded the full chain of Baitun from Zhejiang landfall to the Beijing–Tianjin Level-II response, and Section Five recorded Xiang Chunyi's "typhoon clustering" meta-explanation. This section fills in the chain's North China terminal: the residual circulation's heavy rainfall brought disaster to the North China Plain, and the resettlement needs in Hebei and Henan have been escalated to the national level. Folding beds, quilts, blankets, and household emergency kits — these are not flood-defense supplies but resettlement supplies, marking the shift of attention from "prevention" to "rescue." This rhymes with Beijing's Level-II response "advance warning" formulation: the typhoon's landfall is only the first half, the disposition of residual rainfall is the second half.
The dispatch of 20,000 central disaster-relief items shows that Baitun's story did not end at declassification: the residual circulation's heavy rainfall brought disaster to the North China Plain, and the resettlement needs in Hebei and Henan have already been escalated to the national level. Folding beds, quilts, blankets, household emergency kits — these are not flood-defense supplies but resettlement supplies, marking the shift of attention from "prevention" to "rescue." This echoes Beijing's Level-II response formulation of "advance warning": the typhoon's landfall is only the first half; the disposition of the residual rainfall is the second half.
Section Seven — Declassification Does Not Mean Exit: The Residual Vortex's Eastward Drift and Southeastward Retreat (2026-08-13)
On the evening of August 13, China Weather Network issued a reminder: although Typhoon "Baitun" has been declassified, its residual vortex remains active. Over the past several days, the wide-ranging heavy rainfall brought by Baitun and its residual circulation has affected more than ten provinces and regions. The residual vortex will, under the guidance of the westerly trough, slowly drift eastward into the sea — once over the sea it has a chance to draw warm, moist energy from the ocean again, with the possibility of re-intensification, and its subsequent northward motion could affect Northeast China, with heavy rainfall possibly appearing in Jilin and Heilongjiang on the 17th–18th.
At the same time, the residual vortex will also retreat toward the southeast, pulling the heavy-rain zone eastward and southward: the rainfall that had been easing in Anhui, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang will intensify again. Tomorrow the heavy-rain footprint will narrow, with Jiangsu becoming the heavy-rain center — parts of eastern Anhui and central-southern Jiangsu seeing heavy or extraordinary rainstorms.
The first five sections of this page recorded Baitun's full chain from Zhejiang landfall to North China resettlement; Section Six recorded the North China bill of disaster-relief supplies; this section adds the "second act" of the chain — declassification is not the endpoint; the residual vortex may reorganize over the sea, re-intensify, and pass the rainfall relay baton from North China to Northeast China. This forms a new echo with Xiang Chunyi's "typhoon clustering" judgment in Section Five: Baitun's life history is not yet finished, and its residual vortex continues to produce rainfall within the typhoon sequence.
"Declassification" is a meteorological ledger action, not a disaster-termination signal. The residual vortex's two trajectories — eastward drift over the sea with possible re-intensification, and southeastward retreat pulling East China rainfall back to life — show that a typhoon's residual energy can fork into two rainfall paths, simultaneously affecting Northeast China and East China. For emergency-management agencies, lifting a typhoon warning is only the half-time whistle; the path forecast for the residual vortex is the opening whistle of the second half.