Typhoon to bring heavy rain, gales to northeast

Typhoon Maysak, which was expected to land on the southern coast of South Korea at midnight Wednesday, is forecast to bring gales and torrential rains to Northeast China as it moves northwest, the National Meteorological Center said.

The center predicted that gusts of up to 117 kilometers per hour and heavy rainfall are expected to strike Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces as well as the Inner Mongolia autonomous region through Friday night.

"If the typhoon, a tropical system, meets cold air in the north, large amounts of energy will be released, leading to extremely heavy rain," Xue Jianjun, deputy head of the center, said at a news conference on Wednesday.

"Most of the time, people focus on the typhoon's eye, but the center is usually calm and its peripheral section can have a big impact," Xue said. "To prevent damage brought by Maysak, people need to prepare before its eye comes."

On Tuesday, the China Meteorological Administration issued a Level III emergency response to the typhoon－the third highest of the four-tier warning system.

Heilongjiang's meteorological service warned that through Friday there will be heavy rain and gales. Farmers should take precautions to prevent damage to crops, and ferry and highway services should be suspended in advance.

The sustained rainfall that has been affecting the province will cause flooding in the Songhua and Wusuli rivers, the service said.

Meanwhile, Typhoon Haishen, which formed in the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, is expected to head northwest to Japan and South Korea with winds as strong as 261 km/h on Saturday. However, it is still uncertain how much it will affect Northeast China, the National Meteorological Center said.

The center also forecast that another typhoon will form in the next week and affect the East and South China seas.

Jia Xiaolong, deputy head of the National Climate Center, said that from 1949 to last year, about 21 percent of super typhoons that affected China occurred in September on average.

"Over the past seven decades, Septembers have had about 90 super typhoons affecting our country, accounting for the most among other months, but only five of them landed in China," he said. "We can't rule out the possibility that there will be powerful typhoons landing in our country in September."