{"id":60139537,"date":"2026-06-25T12:50:35","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T11:50:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/?post_type=news_digest&p=60139537"},"modified":"2026-06-25T12:50:38","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T11:50:38","slug":"chinas-largest-desert-floods-after-record-rainfall","status":"publish","type":"news_digest","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/digest\/chinas-largest-desert-floods-after-record-rainfall\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s largest desert floods after record rainfall"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From the night of 19 June, Hotan in Xinjiang experienced its heaviest 24-hour downpour in recorded history. The resulting flooding in the city, which borders the Taklamakan desert, caused the temporary closure of the expressway, China Weather Network reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In three lunchtime hours on 20 June, the area had surpassed its average yearly precipitation, according<\/a> to Xinjiang Meteorological Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The extreme rainstorm was caused by two banks of moist air converging over southern Xinjiang, explained China Weather Network analyst Xin Xin. The rainfall accumulated in the mountainous areas and, together with snowmelt runoff, caused flash floods, he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though Xin Xin did not mention climate change as an exacerbating factor, other commentators have<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There has been snowmelt-induced flooding in the same Tarim basin area before, for instance in 2021 and the summer of 2022. But the rainfall was much more intense this time than in 2021, Tang Peng, director of the Hotan Meteorological Observatory, told<\/a> Qilu Evening News.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The greater intensity is believed to be linked to the increased moisture in the air and rising ground temperatures. Xinjiang is sensitive to climate change. Over the past 60 years the region has shown a significant \u201cwarming and wetting\u201d trend, with the annual mean temperature increasing by 0.33C per decade, higher than the national average, according<\/a> to Wang Hui, a senior engineer at the Xinjiang Climate Centre.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warming and higher humidity in the area could also affect the yields of drought-tolerant crops, and encourage pests and diseases, as Dialogue Earth has reported<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China’s rain belt has been expanding westward and northward “against the backdrop of global warming”, noted<\/a> Chen Lijuan, China Meteorological Administration\u2019s chief forecaster, in a recent press conference.

Read Dialogue Earth\u2019s previous <\/em>analysis<\/em><\/a> on the challenges posed by a warmer, wetter north-west China.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hotan city, which borders the Taklamakan desert, experienced its heaviest 24-hour downpour in recorded history, likely exacerbated by climate change<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":60006649,"template":"","categories":[761],"tags":[519,543],"country":[20000110],"digest-collection":[50039911],"class_list":["post-60139537","news_digest","type-news_digest","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate","tag-climate-impacts","tag-extreme-weather","country-china"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nChina\u2019s largest desert floods after record rainfall | Dialogue Earth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hotan city, which borders the Taklamakan desert, experienced its heaviest 24-hour downpour in recorded history, likely exacerbated by climate change\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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