China’s meteorological authority on Monday warned the public of severe floods along the Yangtze River this year, due to a strong El Nino weather pattern. The precipitation along the Yangtze River will be 10 to 50 percent more this year, and in some areas 80 percent more, according to the Yangtze River Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters. East China’s Jiangxi province and central China’s Hunan province will enter the flood season earlier than usual, and the flood prevention and control work will be arduous, it said.

Even within this week, parts of Guangdong, Guizhou, Hubei, Anhui, Hunan, Jiangxi provinces and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region will see torrential rain of up to 180 millimeters of precipitation from Tuesday to Thursday, the National Meteorological Center (NMC) said in a statement on its website. Alarm has been made for possible geological disasters in the south.