A tornado touched down in Shanghai's Qingpu District on Friday afternoon, adding to the weather woes brought by Typhoon Pulasan, the 14th typhoon this year.
The tornado was reported at 15:45 local time near the G50 Shanghai-Chongqing Expressway.
Witnesses captured footage of the tornado as it moved rapidly, lifting debris into the air and darkening the sky.
"Tornadoes form in unstable environments with high wind shear at low altitudes. In the residual cloud system of a typhoon, because the ground wind has become weaker, and the upper wind force at heights of 500 meters to 1,500 meters in the boundary layer of is often stronger, tornadoes are prone to occur frequently," said Jiang Man, chief forecaster of Shanghai Meteorological Bureau.
The tornado did not result in any casualties or structural damage, and assessments of specific losses are underway.
Having made its second landfall in Fengxian District of Shanghai at about 21:45 on Thursday, tropical storm Pulasan moved northward across central Jiangsu Province, and weakened to a tropical depression in the province's Jiangyin City.
Pulasan then moved northeastward into the Yellow Sea at around 20:00 Friday and then strengthened back into a tropical storm at about 2:00 Saturday.
It is expected to make another landfall over South Joella Province in South Korea on Saturday afternoon.
Zhou Lixian, weather analyst at China Meteorological Administration, noted that Pulasan's path was influenced by its landfall point in the north of the subtropical high-pressure ridge.
The northward trajectory is guided by westerly winds, which pulled Pulasan back over the sea.
Pulasan will gradually become a extratropical cyclone after its projected landing in South Korea on Saturday afternoon.
Zhou further indicated that a strong cold front moving southward from the north will disrupt the prevailing subtropical high-pressure system, leading to a decrease in typhoon activity by late September.
The National Meteorological Center's medium-term forecast suggests that another tropical storm may form in the South China Sea and Northwest Pacific in the next 10 days.
Tornado spotted in Shanghai as tropical depression turns northward
Tornado spotted in Shanghai as tropical depression turns northward
