Many dead, scores missing as China wrestles with drenching rains

(Climate scientists clearly understand that a warmer atmosphere absorbs more moisture; moisture that eventually falls back to earth in downpours such as that now troubling China. Australia saw something similar recently when drenching rains along the country’s east coast, including Tasmania, claimed lives and caused costly damage.

In the confused minds of many, heavy rain and global warming don’t equate as they can imagine only heatwaves and droughts, but huge dumps of rain over an alarmingly short space of time, epitomize climate change – Robert McLean.)

Stadium becomes a "giant bathtub"
in Ezhou, Hubei Province.

Heavy rain around China's Yangtze River basin has left 128 people dead and scores missing, Chinese media says, with more damage feared from a typhoon expected to land this week.

Flooding has forced some 1.3 million people to evacuate vast areas near China's longest river and its connected waterways, the official Xinhua news agency cited the Civil Affairs Ministry as saying.

Millions more are threatened by the continuing downpour, which began at the end of June and has already destroyed at least 41,000 homes, it said.

Water levels in Taihu Lake near Shanghai are at their highest level in decades, according to Beijing News, which said the area faces a serious risk of flooding if a typhoon hits on Friday as forecast.

Read the ABC story - “China floods leave more than 120 dead, scores missing, state media says.”