China’s Most Devastating Summer Yet, By the Numbers

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The nation was hit by record-breaking typhoons, floods, and heatwaves in recent months, causing widespread damage and pushing its resilience to the limit. In the span of weeks, China has been pummeled by typhoons, scorched by record heat, and flooded by relentless rains — a summer of extremes that has battered its cities, devastated farmlands, and tested its resilience. The latest blow came from Typhoon Pulasan, which drenched Shanghai and neighboring Zhejiang province before fading on Sept. 21. It followed close on the heels of Typhoon Bebinca, the fiercest storm to strike Shanghai in over 70 years, with wind speeds reaching up to 162 kilometers per hour. But even Bebinca paled in comparison to Typhoon Yagi, which made landfall in the southern island province of Hainan on Sept. 6 with devastating force. Packing winds of up to 245 kilometers per hour, Yagi was the strongest storm to hit China this year, causing an estimated 80 billion yuan ($11.3 billion) in direct economic losses. T ………………………………