Hundreds of flights cancelled as Typhoon Dolphin hits China

Torrential rain and storms in Typhoon Dolphin's wake have inundated several provinces in China's east, cancelling of hundreds of flights.

Typhoon Dolphin, the strongest to hit China this year, made landfall in Zhejiang, the province to the south and west of Shanghai, with maximum sustained winds of over 93mph near its centre.

Although it has since become a tropical storm, on Monday, it continued to soak eastern provinces including Anhui, Jiangsu and Shandong.

Many streets in ‌Shanghai, the country's second most populous city, were flooded, including in the main commercial centres.

The city's two airports cancelled a total of 943 flights due to the typhoon, reducing capacity by nearly 40%, state broadcaster CCTV said.

China Eastern Airlines said on Monday it was trying to resume flights to Shanghai, Zhejiang and other destinations in an "orderly manner".

Many streets in Shanghai's suburban Jiading and Qingpu districts around the city centre remained waterlogged, according to live streams shared by residents on social media.

Hou Lina, a 39-year-old who works in sales in Jiading in Shanghai, told the Reuters news agency that when she woke up she found "the streets were severely flooded".

"I've lived in Shanghai for 10 years, and this ‌is the first time I've experienced such inconvenience from a typhoon. This is the first time I've encountered such widespread flooding."

In Shanghai's Jinshan, the district authority said non-essential businesses and organisations could temporarily halt operations, classes, outdoor events and transit services, amid forecasts of continued strong ‌winds and heavy rain on Monday.

The storm is forecast to move deeper inland to the central provinces of Hubei and Henan in the coming days, while also pushing moisture north.

The Chinese capital is also bracing for impact, with authorities in Beijing raising warnings for torrential rain and preparing to activate the city's flood control response on Tuesday morning.

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Beijing is expected to experience "significant rainfall" from Tuesday until Thursday, with authorities warning of the risk of flash floods in the city and landslides in the surrounding mountainous areas.

The typhoon had already travelled 6,000 km (3,728 miles) before it made landfall, giving it a life cycle three times longer than an ordinary typhoon, and bringing with it an ultra-large cloud system that enveloped China's east, CCTV said in another report.

TSR (Tropical Storm Risk) said it expected the 2026 northwest Pacific typhoon season to be one of the most active on record - citing the ongoing strong El Nino event, high activity to date and weaker-than-normal trade winds across the northwest Pacific basin.

(c) Sky News 2026: Hundreds of flights cancelled as Typhoon Dolphin hits China