Heavy rains are expected to lash most parts of the country over the next week, and later this month three tropical storms are forecast to hit coastal areas, a senior weather official warned yesterday in Beijing.

Wang Bangzhong, deputy director of forecasting services and the disaster mitigation department of the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), urged local authorities to be prepared for damage caused by the bad weather.

"Northeast China will see persistent rain this week, during which heavy rains are likely to pound areas along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River with a chance of rainstorms in some places," he said.

Rainfall may exceed 100 millimeters this month in most of northeast, north, central and east China while the rainfall will be double the average in parts of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guangxi, Guangdong, Hainan, Fujian and Zhejiang.

"The increased rain is likely to trigger floods and waterlogging in a few regions of northeast China and upstream areas of the Huaihe River, where precipitation will be more than twice the average," he said.

Matsa, the ninth tropical storm of the year, is approaching southern and eastern coastal provinces at a speed of about 20 kilometers per hour and is expected to make landfall during the weekend.

Experts say the storm is likely to turn into a typhoon and bring heavy rains, storm tides and devastating strong winds to China's coastal areas as well as areas along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze, a region covering most of central China and parts of east China.

"This month there are a lot of typhoons forecast; five to six are forming in the Northwest Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea," Wang said.

"At least three of them are likely to land along China's southeast coastal areas," he said.

Northeast China and parts of northwestern provinces aside, the hot and muggy weather will continue this week across the country.

The Shanghai Meteorological Center posted a high-temperature black alert yesterday -- meaning that the mercury had hit 38 ℃.

The centre issues a red alert when the peak temperature exceeds 35 ℃, and a black if it touches 38 ℃.

The number of hot days has increased sharply compared to last year so far there have been 22 alerts for 35 ℃ or above compared with nine last year.

(China Daily August 3, 2005)