On the afternoon of April 27th, a tornado hit some areas of Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, with lightning striking a power pole and the sky flashing with 5 white lights. At the same time, multiple areas in Guangdong issued alerts for heavy rain and hail.
According to the China Weather News, on the afternoon of the 27th, Guangzhou experienced violent severe convective weather with hail falling in many areas.
Local internet users posted images showing hail the size of eggs. Some users revealed that houses and cars were damaged by the hail, and even animals were killed.
Around 3 p.m., a tornado appeared in the Baoyunzhongluotan area of Guangzhou. During this time, the sky flashed with 5 white lights. In a video, many people can be heard expressing what seems like astonishment. A young man in the video said that lightning struck a power pole.
According to the China Meteorological Administration’s Tornado Focus Experimental WeChat official account, following the tornado in the Zhongluotan Town of Baiyun District, staff have been sent to investigate the disaster to gather data on the ground characteristics of the tornado.
Many netizens in Guangdong commented: “It’s too terrifying, like crossing a calamity.” “The tornado tore off the power cable.” “Friends living there all captured it.” “There are several ambulances on the scene.” “It’s so scary, just four o’clock, the sky turned dark in a minute. Now it’s a bit brighter.”
On the afternoon of the 27th, Guangzhou’s Zengcheng also issued a tornado warning, stating that there was a tornado in the central and southern parts of Zengcheng with maximum gusts of 11-12 levels.
Videos shared by netizens show dark clouds over Zengcheng, with the tornado lifting up black ribbon-like objects, scattered in the air, resembling scenes from a doomsday movie.
As of 3 p.m. on the 27th, many areas in Guangzhou have issued yellow/orange alerts for heavy rain, orange alerts for thunderstorms; orange alerts for “hail” have also been in effect in Huangpu, Baiyun, Huadu, Conghua, and Zengcheng districts.
The Guangzhou Huangpu District, Huadu District, and other meteorological stations also successively issued tornado warnings.
At 4:24 p.m. on the 27th, Foshan, Guangdong also issued a tornado warning: it is expected that in the next 1 to 2 hours, there may be tornadoes in the northern part of Gaoming, Hecheng, Baishi in Sanshui, Xiqiao in Nanhai, Danzao, Shishan, Lishui, Dali, Guicheng, Chancheng, and Lecong and Chencun in Shunde.
In addition, the Guangzhou Meteorological Disaster Emergency Command decided to activate the level III meteorological disaster (heavy rain) and level IV emergency response to thunderstorm winds from 3:20 p.m. on the 27th.
Meanwhile, Huadu, Guangzhou issued an emergency notice regarding increasing the flood discharge at the Liuxi River Reservoir.
The notice states that due to the meteorological department’s forecast of heavy rainfall in the reservoir area in the coming days, with the Liuxi River Reservoir currently discharging at a flow rate of 160m³/s and the reservoir water level falling slowly, the discharge flow rate will be increased to 200m³/s at 2 p.m. on the 27th.
Water affairs and hydrological departments assessed that without considering rainfall, this increase in discharge will cause the road surface in the downstream section of Liangkou Middle School to flood by about 0.2 meters.