TORRENTIAL rain is pounding the city today as Hato, the 13th typhoon of the year, is coming to make a landfall along the Guangdong coast between Taishan and Yangjiang this afternoon.

The Shenzhen Meteorological Observatory issued a red alert for the typhoon at 10 a.m. this morning, ordering all schools, kindergartens, workplaces and business venues to close today.

Around 90 bullet trains between Shenzhen and cities in Fujian and Jiangxi provinces will be canceled today.

Shenzhen West Railway Station will also halt five trains, namely K9096 to Shantou, K9094 to Hengyang, K9060 to Huaihua, K9084 to Shaoyang and K9064 to Tongren.

The typhoon is expected to pass through Shenzhen at noon, the observatory said. As of noon yesterday, it was 560 kilometers to the southeast of Shenzhen in the South China Sea.

Shenzhen Oceanic Administration issued a yellow alert for ocean waves yesterday morning, saying that waves of 2.5-4 meters were expected to surge in the off-shore sea areas.

The authorities called 2,168 fishing ships back to shelter and 270 workers at sea have returned to land.

China’s national weather observatory issued an orange alert for Hato yesterday.

At 10 a.m. yesterday, the eye of Hato was above the South China Sea, some 620 km southeast of Zhuhai, Guangdong, packing winds of up to 25 meters per second, the National Meteorological Center (NMC) said in a statement.

Affected by Hato, Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang and Taiwan will see torrential rain and gale-force winds in the coming days.

China has a four-tier color-coded system for severe weather, with red being the most serious, followed by orange, yellow and blue.