Torrential rainfall in China's capital region delivered a year's worth of precipitation in under a week, causing massive flooding that forced the relocation of over 80,000 people and left more than 30 dead, Reuters reported on Tuesday.  

The deluge prompted some Chinese officials to call the city of Beijing a rain "trap," according to Reuters. 

"It's truly heartbreaking," Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs in Beijing, told The Washington Post. "The extremity of this event is undeniable." 

What's happening?

From July 23 through July 28, as much as 22.6 inches of rain fell on certain parts of the Beijing region, which, on average, receives 23.6 inches of rain for an entire year. At its peak, the storm dumped 3.75 inches of rain in just one hour, Reuters reported. 

Locals described floodwaters as striking so suddenly that there was no time to prepare. 

"The flood came in an instant, you just had no buffer," said Zhai, a 33-year-old who runs a grocery shop in hard-hit Miyun, per Reuters. 

"It was too sudden," described Chen Jinlan, who told The New York Times that she had to walk 40 minutes before she found the first segment of road passable by car. 

The massive amounts of rainfall proved far too much for the region's flood-mitigation measures, with the most destruction taking place in the regions outside Beijing. 

"Very few systems are designed to handle such an intense volume of rainfall over such a short period," explained Xuebin Zhang, CEO of the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium, per Reuters.

Worryingly, forecasters predicted additional rain for the area in the coming days, the Post reported. 

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"The flood is still coming, and there is still no power or signal, and I still can't get in touch with my family!" a user posted to the Chinese social media site Weibo, per Reuters. 

What do floods in China mean for the rest of the world?

For decades, scientists have forecast that rising global temperatures would make extreme weather events more severe. Warmer air can absorb more moisture, and when that moisture comes falling back down as rain, the result is more intense rainstorms, which, in turn, cause floods and landslides.

"Extreme weather events are on the rise," Ma told the Post. "High temperatures and heat waves are indeed becoming more frequent, and so are extreme heavy rainfall events.

"Over the past 60 years, there has clearly been an increasing trend, and this pattern aligns with the broader global trend of climate change."

These extreme weather events cost lives, destroy livelihoods, and damage property. 

One woman described to The New York Times how floodwaters had ruined the small corn crop that she relied on for food and money.

"It's not easy for ordinary people to earn money," she told the Times. 

These losses add up. In the first half of 2025 alone, natural disasters cost China $7.6 billion in direct economic losses, according to the Post. 

These impacts are felt far beyond the disaster areas in the form of higher insurance premiums and food prices. 

What's being done about more severe weather?

While making infrastructure more resilient can mitigate the impacts of extreme weather events over the short term, the only way to truly reverse the trend is to reduce the amount of heat-trapping pollution entering the atmosphere.

With 75% of planet-heating pollution coming from the burning of nonrenewable fuels like oil, coal, and gas, the best way to combat extreme weather is to reduce society's reliance on these energy sources.

While weaning the world's economy off dirty-burning fuels will require action at the international level as well as large-scale collaborations between government and industry, there still are plenty of ways to make a difference as an individual. 

For example, choosing cleaner transportation options like walking, riding a bicycle, taking public transit, or driving an EV all are great ways to improve local air quality while reducing planet-heating pollution. 

To take things a step further, you can install solar panels on your home. Powering your home with solar can drop your energy bill to practically nothing while also helping the environment. Pairing solar with a home battery system makes your home more resilient in the event of a power outage. Check the TCD Guide for more.

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