00:00A dead typhoon just killed four people. Its name was Maysac. Three days earlier, it had been
00:05officially downgraded. Removed from the forecast. Everyone was watching the giant approaching from
00:10the sea, Bavi. Nobody noticed that a thousand kilometers inland, where you can't even see the
00:15ocean, the remnants of Maysac were about to collide with a cold front from the north.
00:19July 6, 8-10 p.m. A tornado shaped like a snake. No warning. It touched down silently.
00:26Glass shattered. Students hid under desks. And the real monster was still out at sea,
00:31getting closer. Let's start with that tornado, born from a dead storm. From 8-10 to 8-30 p.m.,
00:3720 minutes. A spinning column dropped from the cloud base, touched the ground, and a Zhou's sky
00:42began to rain debris. It didn't stop. Moving north. Crossing the Yangtze. Smashing into Hwangang.
00:49Several heavy trucks were lifted and tossed, the farthest one moved 30 meters. The roof of Hwangang
00:54normal college was peeled off. Library shelves collapsed. Students hid under desks as glass
01:00exploded. When the wind stopped, the entire university district had no power, no water.
01:05But the hardest thing to process. A logistics warehouse manager stood at his door, watching
01:09two elderly parents swept 100 meters into the air, then fall. Nearby, in a 12th floor apartment,
01:15a man named Zhang was sucked out of his window by the wind. The entire building's windows, frames and
01:20all, were gone. You might be confused. What does this have to do with a typhoon? Didn't it already
01:26pass? That's exactly the problem. Most people think a typhoon making landfall means weakening,
01:31means the danger is over. But Maisak delivered its most devastating blow after it was downgraded,
01:36after it was removed from the forecast. Remember this. It's not just a news story. It's a lesson.
01:42Typhoon landfall is not the end. And this lesson would be tested again in three days. Because the giant
01:48wind out at sea, Bavi, was much, much bigger. Let me be clear, this isn't internet rumor.
01:53This is from China's National Meteorological Center and Xinhua News Agency.
01:57Maisak was the 10th typhoon of the year. It made landfall in Lingxue, Hainan on July 3,
02:02the first typhoon to hit China this season. Then it stalled over Guangxi, refusing to leave,
02:07dumping rain for 26 hours straight. The Hwangang tornado was classified EF2,
02:12with maximum winds exceeding 15 on the Beaufort scale.
02:14In Hu. Hangzhou district alone, 5,975 people were affected.
02:20Direct economic losses, 450 million yuan. For confirmed dead in Hwangzhou, one missing.
02:26That's just one district. Across Hubei and Hizhou, 11 people gone,
02:30in a single night. How does a downgraded typhoon still produce a tornado?
02:34The answer is four words, residual circulation. A typhoon is a rotating column hundreds of kilometers
02:40wide, stuffed with heat and moisture carried from the ocean. When it makes landfall,
02:44it loses that ocean fuel source. Wind speeds drop fast.
02:48But the energy doesn't disappear. The residual circulation keeps spinning.
02:52It keeps pushing warm, moist air northward. That warm air collided with cold air from the north.
02:58Over eastern Hubei, it created a supercell. And from that supercell, a tornado was born.
03:04Science can explain how it happened.
03:05But it cannot predict when the next one will hit.
03:08Tornado forecasting is still a global challenge.
03:11Even the United States, with thousands of tornadoes a year and massive investment in equipment,
03:15can only give an average of 10 to 15 minutes warning.
03:18Sometimes not even that. And that 10 minutes.
03:21That's your only window to find shelter.
03:23One minute could be the difference between life and death.
03:26Hwangang's tornado emerged from the chaos of a typhoon's remnants,
03:29even harder to catch in advance than usual.
03:31We know why it happened, but we can't predict where it will hit next.
03:35Maysac had a second punch. Its remnants brought wind to Hubei and water to Guangxi.
03:39It was only a tropical storm, not particularly strong.
03:42But it moved too slowly, stalled for 26 hours.
03:46That's like leaving a faucet running over one spot without turning it off.
03:49Nanning's Yiling Road recorded 754.3 millimeters of rainfall,
03:53what in Beijing's entire average annual precipitation.
03:56Fangchenggang's main streets were submerged, car roofs disappeared.
04:00The Lulon Reservoir in Hangzhou couldn't hold, the dam broke.
04:03Downstream villages were flooded. The water level hit 9.89 meters,
04:07the highest since the reservoir was built in 1982.
04:10By July 7, about 375,000 people in Guangxi were affected.
04:15130,000 were evacuated. Wind in Hubei.
04:19Floods in Guangxi. All happening after the typhoon was dead.
04:23All hitting places you thought were safe.
04:25That's the full answer to the question.
04:27Now zoom out.
04:29Why are this year's typhoons coming one after another, faster and stronger?
04:32China's National Climate Center
04:34are warned at the start of the year, more typhoons in 2026, stronger ones, arriving earlier.
04:40The first typhoon appeared on January 15,
04:42over 2 months earlier than the long-term average of March 25.
04:45Behind this, 2 hidden hands.
04:48One is El Niño, rapidly intensifying.
04:50The other is the ever-warming ocean.
04:52According to IPCC assessments, more than 90% of the excess heat from human-caused
04:56greenhouse gas emissions has been absorbed by the oceans.
04:59Heat is fuel for typhoons.
05:01Warmer water means bigger monsters.
05:03And the biggest one this year is already at the door.
05:06That's Bavi, typhoon number 9.
05:08A monster several times larger than Maysac.
05:11Just 2 days ago it was a tropical disturbance.
05:14Then explosive intensification.
05:16Super typhoon.
05:17Central pressure dropped to 955 hectopascals.
05:21Wind speeds of 60 meters per second, category 17.
05:24Its circulation diameter, nearly 1,000 kilometers.
05:28The radius of its gale force wind stretches 400 to 500 kilometers.
05:32Its outer bands alone can swallow Zhuzhang from Hangzhou to Wenzhou.
05:35China's national defense has activated a level 1 emergency response for Zhuzhang and Fuzhen.
05:40The Central Meteorological Center projects Bavi may graze the northern coast of Taiwan,
05:44making landfall near the Zhuzhang-Fuzhen border around July 15.
05:47Or it might head straight north toward Zhuzhang.
05:49The last typhoon to follow this path as a super typhoon, hitting Wenzhou, was Lekoma in 2019.
05:55But what should really send chills down your spine isn't how strong Bavi is at the coast.
05:59Go back to the Maysac lesson.
06:01A tropical storm's remnants flipped two inland provinces.
06:04Bavi's energy at landfall will be several times that of Maysac.
06:08When its remnants are thrown inland, it will likely replay Maysac's script, in an enlarged edition.
06:12This exam isn't for the coast.
06:14It's for everyone who thinks they're safe from typhoons inland.
06:17So prepare.
06:19People with high blood pressure or heart conditions,
06:21the hours before the pressure drops will be hardest on your body.
06:24Keep your medicine where you can reach it.
06:26Tape your windows with white tape in an X pattern.
06:29Bring in everything from your balcony, those flower pots become 100 kilometer range projectiles.
06:34Stalk three days of food and water.
06:36Power and water outages are the norm during typhoons.
06:39If the wind and rain suddenly stop, don't go outside.
06:42That might be the typhoon eye passing overhead.
06:44If you're caught in a tornado situation, immediate.
06:47L.Y. Leave all windows.
06:49Get into a room without windows.
06:51Never go under a bridge, the wind there only gets stronger.
06:55Maysac was the warning.
06:56Bavi is the main feature.
06:58The exam is coming in the next few days.
07:00The paper tests not just the coastal defenses,
07:03but everyone in the inland who thought they were safe.
07:05A typhoon makes landfall.
07:07That's not the end.
07:08It might be the beginning of another disaster.
07:11What's the weather like where you are right now?
07:13Drop it in the comments.
