Heavy downpours in Beijing

An early morning rainstorm on Monday has turned Beijing into a disaster zone as numerous floods and landslides have appeared throughout the capital, causing citywide traffic chaos and infrastructure damage.

Beijing issued multiple weather-related warnings this morning after a quarter of the city's weather monitoring stations received over 5 centimeters of precipitation ever since Sunday night. Although the city's average was just 3.6 centimeters, northern and western districts received substantially more rain with the most coming in at 31 centimeters in Zhangjiafen, Miyun.

The rain caused no less than nine landslides in Beijing's northern suburbs, shutting down multiple roads and highways as well as cutting off electrical power to 2,000 residents in Miyun

With no injuries yet reported, the most dramatic episode so far has been in Tonghekouzhong at the northern tip of Beijing where a woman was rescued from the torrents of a mountain flash flood

Meanwhile, the rain has also had an impact upon Beijing's urban center. The rain has turned several city streets into rivers, most prominently in Changping's Huilongguan neighborhood where 10 centimeters of rain flooded underpasses to depths up to three meters, blocking traffic and forcings motorists to abandon their cars

Unfortunately for us, the rain won't be going away until Thursday. Tuesday is forecast to see levels of precipitation between 3-4 centimeters, maxing out at 10 centimeters in some places.