Typhoon Matmo hits Guangxi, causes heavy rain, disruptions

 Typhoon Matmo, the 21st typhoon of the year, made its second landfall in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region early Monday morning, prompting heavy rain warnings and emergency shutdown measures across multiple cities.

The center of the severe tropical storm touched down near Fangchenggang city around 1:10 am on Monday, according to the National Meteorological Center, with maximum sustained winds near the core reaching 28 meters per second, equivalent to a Category 10 storm on China's scale.

This followed an initial landfall on Xuwen county in Zhanjiang, Guangdong province, on Sunday.

By 6 am Monday, the national weather authority had issued a yellow rainstorm alert — the third-highest in China's four-tier warning system . Forecasters warned of heavy downpours across parts of seven provincial-level regions from 8 am Monday to 8 am Tuesday, with areas in western Guangxi and southeastern Yunnan expecting up to 190 millimeters of rainfall, qualifying as "torrential".

Coastal and adjacent waters are also bracing for strong winds, with gusts reaching up to level 8 or 9 in the northwestern South China Sea, Beibu Gulf and coastal areas of southern Guangxi and southwestern Guangdong, with certain regions along Guangxi's coast facing gusts of levels 10 to 11.

In response, multiple cities in Guangxi, including Beihai, Qinzhou, Fangchenggang and Chongzuo, have announced a "five-stop" order late Sunday, suspending classes, work, production, transportation and business operations to minimize risks .