On July 25, 2021, Typhoon In-fa (typhoon scale, 35m/s) made landfall along the coast of Zhoushan, Zhejiang, becoming the strongest typhoon to land in China in 2021, and then stayed on land for 95 hours.

In the face of strong typhoon In-fa, the affected regions and their governments have taken it very seriously. In Zhejiang, science-based forecasting and warning, risk screening, emergency forces deployment, and evacuation of people are required. The municipal government of Shanghai has requested that every effort be made to nip possible dangers in the bud.

Under the leadership of the government, all relevant agencies took action in the first time and joined forces. China Meteorological Administration (CMA) took part in the video conference of the Ministry of Emergency Management, timely submitted information on decision-making services, and conducted the deployment of special research as well as the upgrading of meteorological early warning and emergency response step by step.

Urban transport department in Shanghai harnessed meteorological data to conduct refined management.

With the guiding role of meteorological early warning, relevant departments in sectors like meteorology, water resources, and natural resources were organized to discuss and analyze the rain and flood condition, and connected Zhejiang and Shanghai to deploy defense work.

In addition, Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry of Transports, the National Commission for Disaster Reduction, Ministry of Emergency Management took immediate action. Among them, in Zhejiang, which was directly affected by the typhoon, the meteorological observatory, department of emergency management, water conservancy department and others quickly entered the emergency state. By July 24th, the provincial meteorological service has issued 33 typhoon reports, 239 early warning signals of various meteorological disasters and 2.931 million early warning messages in total.

After receiving the meteorological warning information, the entire society and people actively dealt with the impacts of In-fa.

Because early warning information reached all villages, all household, and all people, people from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and other affected areas consciously stayed at home in order to avoid the winds and rain.

YU Yan, a leading early rice farmer in Qiaotou town, Cixi, Zhejiang, worked overtime to harvest more than 9000 mu of early rice.

DONG Hui, director of Shangzhang Reservoir Management Office in Xiangshan County, in Ningbo adjusted the frequency of daily patrol from one to two times, as well as patrol at any time.

Xianxiang town, Yinzhou District of Ningbo made all fishing boats return to port to take shelter from the winds.

Meteorological departments play the leading role and the first line of defense in meteorological disaster prevention and mitigation on the strength of ubiquitous and tailored services.

Since July 18, the National Meteorological Centre (NMC) has strengthened consultations with meteorological departments in places like Zhejiang and Shanghai, and reinforced coordination of forecasts and early warning.

On July 25, 2021, forecasters from NMC monitored and judged the movement of In-fa. Photoed by YE Yihong

The National Satellite Meteorological Centre (NSMC) of CMA activated the one-minute regional observation model of FENGYUN-4B satellite rapid Imager to continuously observe the precipitation distribution and wind field in the region affected by In-fa.

FENGYUN-4A meteorological satellite monitored typhoon In-fa on July 25, 2021. Source: NSMC of CMA

The National Meteorological Information Centre (NMIC) produced three-dimensional visualization products, for instance, three-dimensional wind speed vector of typhoon In-fa.

Meteorological Observation Centre (MOC) of CMA developed three products, namely, potential pseudo-equivalent temperature, three-dimensional wind speed flow field, and warm-core structure of typhoon.

The typhoon chasing team of Shanghai Typhoon Institute (STI) of CMA released an ozone sounding balloon and launched a collaborative experiment with unmanned surface vehicle.

At the same time, radars, sounding devices, and automatic stations in Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Fujian and Jiangxi carried out seamless detection of the typhoon.

Meteorological departments and departments in terms of water resources, emergency response and disaster reduction, transportation, and electric power have formed a typhoon defense network. In addition, meteorological departments took the initiative to carry out telephone calls for key defense areas to ensure that early warning information covers each household.

In-fa resulted in strong winds and intense rain in Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu and other places. Afterwards, its impacts also spanned from East China to Northeast China. Timely warning and effective response have safeguarded lives and mitigated economic losses.

Editor: LIU Shuqiao