The Shanghai Central Meteorological Observatory has upgraded the yellow rainstorm alert to an orange rainstorm alert as of 12pm on Wednesday. Heavy rainfall of over 100 millimeters is expected to fall across most areas of the city within the next 24 hours, concentrated within a 6-hour period. In response, the city has raised its emergency level for flood and typhoon control from Level III to Level II.

Earlier the observatory has issued several warnings: yellow lightning and typhoon alerts, and a blue high tide alert for the Huangpu River.

Typhoon Co-may is on track to make its second landfall in Shanghai on Wednesday evening between southern Pudong and Fengxian, bringing powerful winds and heavy downpours across the city.

The tropical storm already made its first landfall at 4:30am on Wednesday morning on Zhujiajian Island in Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province.

Now moving northwest, Co-may is expected to deliver wind speeds of Level 9-10 (23-28 meters per second). Inland gusts may reach Level 8-9, with stronger winds up to Level 11 near the coast and river mouth.

The storm is forecast to move into Jiangsu Province via Jiading or Chongming between 10pm (Wednesday) and 1am (Thursday), with its effects on the city gradually weakening by early Thursday.

Tsunami yellow alert

Meanwhile, China's Ministry of Natural Resources issued a tsunami yellow alert following a powerful magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on Wednesday morning.

The resulting tsunami is expected to cause hazardous impacts along parts of China's coast, including Shanghai, Zhoushan and several areas in Taiwan, with wave heights possibly reaching 0.3 to 1 meter.