Northern China on alert for typhoon-like winds from Mongolia

Red flags flutter in the wind near the Chinese national emblem in Beijing, Monday, March 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

BEIJING -- Northern China is bracing for typhoon-like gales this weekend, with Beijing postponing major sporting events, closing parks, suspending dozens of train services and warning its 22 million residents against non-essential travel. Dozens of flights were cancelled.

A cold vortex from Mongolia is forecast to sweep across northern Chinese provinces from Friday afternoon through the weekend, bringing unusually powerful winds, state-run Xinhua news agency reported, with gusts of up to 150 km/h (93 mph).

Strong winds carrying sand and dust from Mongolia are normal at this time of the year, but climate change has made weather events more extreme. Beijing issued its first orange gale alert in 10 years for this weekend, the second-highest of four tiers.

Temperatures in the capital were set to fall by 12 degrees Celsius on Saturday, and meteorologists warned that wind speeds could rival or exceed April records dating back to 1951.

Heavy snow is expected to blanket parts of the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia as well as northeast China, while southern China could be hit by the most intense hailstorms so far this year.

A half-marathon in Beijing scheduled for Sunday in which humanoid robots were due to race alongside humans to showcase China’s technological advances has been postponed by a week.

Fifty-six train services to or from the capital were cancelled on Friday and 103 for Saturday.

As of noon local time, China Southern Airlines had cancelled 31 flights for Friday and 17 for Saturday.

More than 4,800 trees across the city were either reinforced or pruned to reduce the risk that they would break or fall.

Natural disasters in China caused direct economic losses of 9.3 billion yuan (US$1.27 billion) in the first two months of 2025, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.

Reporting by Ethan Wang and Ryan Woo; Editing by Kate Mayberry and Kevin Liffey, Reuters