Thunder storm hits Beijing

Beijing's weather bureau issued the third thunder storm alert in 24 hours at 5:05 a.m. Thursday.

Sporadic precipitation began at around 7 a.m., stopped for a while at around 8:30 a.m. but soon poured again.

The rain reduced Thursday's high temperature to 27 degrees Celsius, down from 33 degrees Celsius reported Wednesday.

It caused some chaos, however, on the roads, when residents started off for work in the morning.

Thursday was the first working day after a three-day holiday for Duanwu, or Dragon Boat Festival.

Most parts of the city were already hit by rain on Wednesday. Yanqing District in the northern suburbs also had hailstones 9 mm in diameter, Beijing weather bureau said on its website.

It said the average precipitation in Beijing was 14 mm between 2 p.m. Wednesday and 6 a.m. Thursday. The city center received an average of 8 mm, while the outer Miyun District received 52 mm.

The weather bureau has forecast an average precipitation of 380 to 440 mm in Beijing this summer, more than the average level of the past decade.

Thunder storm also hit the neighboring Tianjin Province Thursday, bringing down the high temperature to 31 degrees Celsius from 37 degrees on Wednesday.

Rainstorm and subsequent disasters have wreaked havoc across south China since Sunday, leaving at least 42 people dead and 36 missing.

The National Meteorological Center said on Wednesday rainstorms were to continue in south China in the coming three days. It also forecast rain in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, northeastern China and the Beijing-centered northern region, Kazinform cites Xinhua. See www.xinhuanet.com for full version.