Tornadoes Hit Southern and Northern China Within Hours, Leaving a Trail of Destroyed Homes
According to reports by Sohu, citing the Guangzhou Meteorological Bureau, a moderate tornado touched down in the Aotou township of Conghua district, Guangzhou, at around 5 p.m. on May 23, flattening the second floor of a temporary construction-site building and uprooting a number of trees along a narrow, roughly 1.5-kilometer path.
Meteorologists from the Guangzhou Weather Bureau conducted a field investigation the following day. Based on radar data, surveillance footage, ground damage patterns, and witness interviews, they confirmed the tornado traveled west to east between Aotou’s Second Central Primary School and a construction site attached to Huaxia Vocational College. The event lasted approximately three minutes. Assessed damage indicators placed the storm at EF1 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, corresponding to a moderate-intensity tornado.
The afternoon of May 23 brought heavy cloud cover to Guangzhou. Tornado warnings were issued for the Baiyun, Huangpu, and Conghua districts between 4 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.
Residents posting online described the scene: “Several trees in my yard were ripped out.” “Someone inside a library was blown off their feet.” “The roof of a pig shed was sent flying.” “No wonder all the trees fell over — cars were knocked sideways too.”
Heilongjiang township hit by tornado described as worst in living memory
According to CCTV, the same afternoon, a destructive storm struck Mingshui County in Suihua, Heilongjiang province. Beginning around 3 p.m. on May 23, tornadoes swept through the Yulin, Tongda, and Tongquan townships, lasting approximately 18 minutes. Nine people sustained minor injuries. Preliminary tallies recorded damage to 313 homes, downed power infrastructure, and more than 26,000 broken or toppled trees across the county.
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Yulin Township’s Shifan Village bore the worst of it: 201 homes were damaged and more than 30 were outright destroyed.
Residents described conditions that exceeded anything in local memory. A man named Liu said that out of every ten houses in his village, nine had their metal roofs stripped off, and nearly every large tree had snapped in two. A man named Li, in his sixties, said he had never experienced anything like it, and that the entire village was left without water or electricity.
A resident of Shifan Village told reporters the tornado lasted roughly 20 minutes. Steel-frame buildings, which make up most of the village’s housing stock, had their roofs peeled away and scattered across the fields. Several homes were demolished entirely. Power poles and trees throughout the village snapped at the trunk. “We have never seen wind this strong before,” the resident said.
Wider disaster season: at least 31 dead as record rains continue
The twin tornadoes arrived as a broader weather crisis deepened across China. According to Reuters, in recent days, record-breaking rainfall has struck Hubei, Hunan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Guangdong, Jiangxi, Anhui, Hainan, and Chongqing. At least 21 people have been killed, with dozens more reported missing across the affected provinces.
The devastation has been severe. Jinjiahe Village in Changde, Hunan province, described as the highest-elevation settlement in the municipality, was reported to have been nearly wiped out. Circulating videos from affected areas have drawn widespread shock online, with viewers comparing the footage to disaster films.
The severe weather is not over. China’s National Meteorological Center issued yellow rainstorm warnings and blue severe-convective-weather warnings on the morning of May 26, warning that thunderstorm winds would continue to affect parts of Chongqing, Hubei, and Guizhou.