Bavi sets multiple records as it enters 13th day

Tropical Storm Bavi is forecast to move northeast through the Bohai Strait or the Yellow Sea after crossing eastern China before gradually transitioning into an extratropical cyclone, the National Meteorological Center said on Tuesday.

As of 10 am on Tuesday, Bavi was centered over Weihai in East China's Shandong province with maximum sustained winds of 18 meters per second and a central pressure of 992 hectopascals, according to Dong Lin, chief forecaster at the NMC.

Bavi, which was reclassified as a tropical storm on Sunday, made two landfalls in East China's Zhejiang province over the weekend, and is expected to continue weakening after entering the Bohai Strait or the north-central Yellow Sea.

Although Bavi has weakened significantly, it has already set multiple records, including becoming the strongest typhoon to make landfall in Zhejiang in July since meteorological records began in 1949.

The ninth typhoon of the year formed over the northwestern Pacific Ocean on July 2, about 4,500 kilometers southeast of Yuhuan, Zhejiang. It moved northwestward and intensified rapidly, reaching super typhoon status just 42 hours after forming after four consecutive upgrades in intensity.

Bavi reached peak intensity with maximum sustained winds of 62 m/s on July 4 and maintained super typhoon strength for about 135 hours.

"During its lifetime, the storm underwent four periods of intensification and four periods of weakening, a rare pattern in historical records," Dong said.

Another distinctive feature of Bavi was its unusually large circulation. Before landfall, its cloud system stretched more than 1,500 km across, while the radius of its typhoon-force winds extended about 150 km from the center — roughly twice that of an average typhoon, Dong said.

After making landfall, Bavi tracked deep inland across Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangsu and Shandong provinces, maintaining tropical storm strength or higher for about 60 hours over land.

"By Tuesday noon, the storm had persisted for more than 12 days, more than twice the average lifespan of a typhoon," Dong said.

Since July 10, Bavi has brought widespread heavy rain and damaging winds across much of eastern China. Rainfall totals reached 100 to 250 millimeters in parts of Zhejiang, Fujian, Taiwan, Jiangxi, Anhui and Jiangsu, with isolated areas receiving more than 450 mm.

The highest rainfall totals included 763.5 mm in Miaoli, Taiwan, 497.1 mm in Huangshan, Anhui, and 479.6 mm in Yongjia, Zhejiang.

Along the eastern coast, Bavi generated widespread gale-force winds.

"Three national weather stations set all-time records for maximum wind gusts, while 15 others broke their July records," Dong said.

The strongest wind gust, 54.1 m/s, was recorded on Dachen Island in Taizhou, Zhejiang, she added.

Chen Tao, another chief forecaster at the NMC, said the storm's vast moisture transport also fueled heavy rainfall far from its center, bringing 50 to 150 mm of rain to parts of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and northeastern China, with localized totals exceeding 500 mm in Hebei and Liaoning.

"In addition to producing intense rainfall near its core, Bavi also generated unusually heavy rainfall far from its center by transporting abundant tropical moisture over long distances," Chen said.