Shanghai Typhoon Season: What to Do Before the Power Dies

Shanghai’s typhoon season officially runs from June to October, peaking between mid-July and mid-September. The city averages one to two storms passing close each year. Most arrive as heavy wind and serious rain rather than full catastrophe, but “most” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence. Typhoon Bebinca in September 2024 was the strongest storm to make direct landfall on Shanghai since 1949. It knocked out power to parts of Pudong for two days.

The point is not to panic. The point is to know what to do before your power bank dies and your delivery app stops working.

The color-coded alert system: four colors, one simple rule

Shanghai uses a four-color typhoon warning system: Blue, Yellow, Orange, Red. The simple version: Blue means pay attention, Yellow means prepare, Orange means stay indoors, Red means everything shuts down.

Here is the part nobody tells new arrivals: when an Orange alert is active, school closures are automatic. Do not wait for a separate email from the school administration to keep your children home. Some schools send the email three hours late. The alert itself is the instruction.

Warning messages get pushed to mobile phones in multiple languages, including English. You will also see them on electronic screens around the city. If you have WeChat, follow the “Shanghai Weather” or “Meteorological Cloud” official accounts for real-time updates in Chinese (use translate).

What to stock before the storm (and when)

The moment a Blue alert is issued, go shopping. This is not a drill, it is a race. Within hours of a Yellow alert, convenience store shelves empty out like it’s Chinese New Year eve. Here is what you want:

• Water: two days’ worth per person. If the power goes out, your water purifier stops working too.
• Food that does not need cooking: instant noodles, bread, crackers, fruit. If you have a gas stove, you’re in better shape than most, electric stoves and induction cooktops are useless without power.
• Power bank: fully charged, at least 20,000mAh. Your phone is your flashlight, your weather tracker, your communication with the outside world, and your delivery app (when it comes back online).
• Flashlight or headlamp: your phone’s flashlight will drain the battery in about two hours of continuous use. A 30 RMB LED flashlight from Taobao solves this.
• Cash: 200-500 RMB. If power is out across a neighborhood, Alipay and WeChat Pay do not work. The noodle shop downstairs will still be open, but only for cash.
• Portable raincoat or poncho: regular umbrellas do not survive typhoon winds. Just accept this now.

Your apartment: the quick check

Before the wind picks up, spend ten minutes on this:

• Bring everything off your balcony. Plants, drying racks, chairs, anything the wind can pick up becomes a projectile. This is not dramatic; it is physics.
• Clear the balcony drain. If it clogs during heavy rain, your balcony becomes a swimming pool that leaks into your living room.
• Close and lock all windows. If your apartment has older aluminum-frame windows, consider taping them in an X pattern with wide packing tape to reduce shattering risk.
• Check your weather stripping. Ground-floor apartments and street-facing doorways are vulnerable to water seepage. A rolled-up towel along the bottom of the door is low-tech but effective.

Transport: what shuts down and when

Transport is where the typhoon hits your plans hardest. Here is how it goes:

• Metro: above-ground and elevated lines shut down first, sometimes at Yellow alert. Underground sections may continue running at reduced speed. Check the “Operating Adjustments” tab on shmetro.com or the Shanghai Metro app before heading out.
• Flights: delays and cancellations start at Yellow alert and escalate. Major carriers (Air China, China Southern, China Eastern) typically waive change and cancellation fees when an official typhoon warning is active, and who pays for your hotel if you get stranded depends on why the flight died. Rebook early. Waiting until the storm hits means sitting in a packed terminal competing with ten thousand other people for three remaining seats.
• Trains: high-speed rail between cities may suspend service. Check the 12306 app for real-time updates.
• Didi and taxis: expect massive surge pricing if drivers are available at all. During an Orange or Red alert, most drivers simply stop accepting rides. Get where you need to be before the alert escalates.
• Ferries: the Huangpu River ferry suspends at Yellow alert.

During the storm: the boring but important part

Stay inside. This sounds obvious until you realize how tempting it is to “just run out for a coffee.” During Typhoon Bebinca, flying debris and falling tree branches caused most of the injuries. The storm is not the spectacle. The flying signage is.

Stay away from windows. If you hear glass cracking or see the frame flexing, move to an interior room or hallway.

Keep your phone charged. If the power goes out, your phone is your connection to weather updates, emergency contacts, and the knowledge of when it is safe to go outside again. Conserve battery: turn off Bluetooth, lower screen brightness, switch to airplane mode if you are not waiting for messages.

Know the emergency numbers. Citizens Service Hotline: 12345 (English available). Shanghai Call Center for expats: 962288 (multilingual translation and info). Fire: 119. Medical: 120. Police: 110.

After the storm: the soggy commute

The wind dies down before the flooding does. Shanghai’s drainage system handles ordinary rain, but typhoon-grade downpours regularly overwhelm the infrastructure, especially in low-lying areas of Jing’an, Huangpu, and Pudong. If you need to leave home within a few hours of the storm passing:

• Open Amap (Gaode Maps) and check the real-time waterlogging map. Seriously, this feature exists and it works. It shows you which streets and underpasses are flooded so you can route around them.
• Wear waterproof shoes or be prepared to ruin the ones you are wearing. Ankle-deep water on sidewalks is common for six to twelve hours after a strong storm.
• Check metro and flight status before leaving. Service resumes gradually, and the first trains may be packed.

What to do first, depending on who you are

If you have a flight in the next 48 hours, rebook now in the airline app, before the Yellow alert. If you live on a ground floor or a street-facing shop-house, buy a door sausage and clear the drain today, because water gets in long before wind breaks anything. If you have children in a local or international school, treat an Orange alert as the closure notice and keep them home. If you are on a high floor with a big balcony, your one job is to bring everything inside. And if you are simply curious what a typhoon looks like, watch it from indoors: the storm is not what injures people, the flying signage is.

The apps you need on your phone

• WeChat “Shanghai Weather” official account: push alerts in Chinese, but the color + icon system is universal.
• Moji Weather (墨迹天气): English interface available, good for hourly rain forecasts and typhoon tracking.
• Amap (高德地图): waterlogging map, real-time road conditions, and route planning that accounts for floods.
• Shanghai Metro app or shmetro.com: operating adjustments during storms.
• Your airline’s app: for rebooking without calling the overwhelmed customer service line.

One more thing: do not assume Shanghai is somehow “shielded” from real typhoons. The city’s infrastructure is good. Its drainage pumps work hard. But storms are getting stronger, and assuming it will always be “just rain” is how you end up eating dry cereal in the dark with a dead phone. Stock up at Blue. Stay in at Orange. And throw away your umbrella fantasies. Get a poncho.