SHANGHAI - China is bracing for a heavy flood season with 71 rivers already exceeding warning levels, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday, as meteorological authorities warned that global warming is fuelling more extreme weather.
Rain in some parts of central and southern China has hit record highs in recent weeks even though overall precipitation is about 10% lower this year compared with last year, according to the Ministry of Water Resources.
Water levels on the Yangtze and its tributaries were expected to rise further over the next week, the ministry said, and it warned of major floods throughout the country from June to August.
Some monitoring stations are issuing alerts, with the Wuhan city section of the Yangtze river in central China more than two metres higher than the normal at this time of the year as a result of heavy rain upstream.
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