NE China on alert for mountain torrents as heat bakes eastern region

BEIJING -- China's Ministry of Water Resources and the China Meteorological Administration on Saturday issued a yellow alert for mountain torrents, saying related disasters are highly likely to hit parts of Liaoning and Heilongjiang provinces in the northeast of the country from Saturday night to Sunday night.

Meanwhile, mountain torrent-related disasters are also very likely to hit parts of Yunnan province and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, according to a warning jointly issued by the two government departments.

They called on local authorities to closely monitor weather-related developments and take measures to prepare for disasters.

China has a four-tier, color-coded weather-warning system, with red representing the most severe warning, followed by orange, yellow and blue.

In a separate forecast, the National Meteorological Center said that temperatures exceeding 40 C are expected to hit parts of Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces in eastern China on Sunday.