Plum rains offer brief dry spell

By Lu Feiran and Dong Zhen  |   2008-6-24  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

THE constant rain is expected to take a break tomorrow and Thursday as the plum rains belt moves south, but the downpours will be back Friday afternoon.

Temperatures will rise gradually to nearly 30 degrees Celsius on Friday, the Shanghai Meteorological Bureaus said.

Thunderstorms will hit on Saturday and temperatures will drop again.

With the plum rain belt overhead, rain hit most of the city yesterday afternoon as it had from Sunday night to yesterday morning, bringing traffic problems.

In Xujiahua area, the rainfall reached 46.4 millimeters from Sunday night to yesterday morning. While in the suburbs, Songjiang District had the most rainfall with 51.1 millimeters, followed by Qingpu and Baoshan districts.

The bureau issued a yellow lightning alert and a yellow rainstorm alert at 2:22pm, warning people that lightning was expected within three hours and in some areas the rainfall could reach 50 millimeters within six hours. The alert was canceled at 5:54pm. Dozens of flights heading to Pudong International Airport yesterday were forced to land in Hongqiao and other airports in nearby provinces due to bad visibility, the aviation control authority said.

The weather at Pudong improved after 3:30pm but "delays are inevitable for those landing in out-of-town airports to wait for another take-off," according to Jiang Yao, an official with Shanghai Air Traffic Management Bureau.

Shanghai's Hongqiao Airport accepted more than 20 extra flights, using up its maximum spare space to take aircraft from other airports before the weather at Pudong improved, she added.

Days of heavy rain have put railways in East China in danger of flooding and of damage to roads, according to Shanghai Railway Administration.

By yesterday afternoon, trains in Shanghai and nearby areas were running normally but the railway authority stepped up monitoring of its networks.