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There is a possibility of cloudy weather and rain for the next three days.

According to the Weather Forecasting Division of the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, light to moderate rains are currently occurring in a few places of Koshi, Bagmati, Gandaki, Karnali and Sudurpaschim Provinces.

In the afternoon, there is a chance of light to moderate rain with thunder and lightning in some parts of the hilly areas of the country including Lumbini.

Later during the night, light to moderate rain with thunder and lightning is possible at some places of Koshi, Bagmati, Gandaki and Sudurpaschim Provinces and few places in the rest of the provinces. There is also a possibility of heavy rain with thunder and lightning at one or two places in Koshi, Bagmati and Gandaki provinces.

On Monday, heavy rain with thunder and lightning is likely in one or two places in Lumbini, Karnali and Sudurpaschim Provinces.

Likewise, on Tuesday, there is a possibility of heavy to very heavy rain with thunder and lightning at one or two places in Lumbini and Sudurpaschim Provinces and heavy rain at one or two places in Koshi and Karnali Provinces.

Domestic and international flights have been affected at the Tribhuvan International Airport due to incessant rainfall since Saturday night.

As a result of low visibility, some flights have been diverted and some others canceled, said the TIA General Manager Pratap Babu Tiwari.

The Air India aircraft coming from New Delhi in India has been diverted to Varanasi, and airplanes of the Air China and Sichuan Airlines heading from Tianfu of China to Tianfu. Similarly, flights from Kathmandu to Pokhara and Surkhet have been halted.

Three Kathmandu-Pokhara flights and one Kathmandu-Tumlingtar flight of Buddha Air have been canceled.

According to the Meteorological Forecasting Division, rainfall is predicted to continue until Tuesday.

The Meteorological Forecasting Division has forecasted light to moderate rain in most of the places of the country on Sunday.

The Division said that there are chances of heavy to very heavy rain with thunder and lightning in a few places of Koshi, Bagmati, Gandaki, Lumbini, Karnali and Sudur Pashchim Provinces and in one or two places of Madesh Province.

Likewise, the Division has predicted generally to be mostly cloudy throughout the country with the potentiality of the occurrence of light to moderate rain at most of the places of the country tonight.

Heavy to very heavy rain with thunder and lightning has been forecast in some places of Karnali and Sudur Pashchim Provinces, at a few places of Koshi, Bagmati, Gandaki  and Lumbini Provinces. 

It has predicted extremely heavy rainfall in one or two places of Sudur Pashchim Province.

The Kathmandu Valley has been receiving rainfall since this morning.

The Division said that presently the axis of monsoon trough is located towards north (near Nepal) from the average position while Nepal experiences influences of a low-pressure area surrounding the Uttar Pradesh and Bihar states of India.

The death toll from recent flooding in and around China’s capital Beijing has risen to 33, including five rescuers, while 18 other people remain missing, officials said, as much of the country’s north remains threatened by ongoing heavy rainfall, Aljazeera reported.

Record downpours have hit China’s capital in recent weeks, damaging infrastructure and deluging swaths of the city’s suburbs and surrounding areas.

Officials said on Wednesday that 33 people had died and 18 others were missing after the recent bad weather in Beijing, mainly due to flooding and buildings collapsing.

Days of heavy rain hit areas in Beijing’s mountainous western outskirts especially hard, causing the collapse of 59,000 homes, damage to almost 150,000 others and flooding of more than 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres) of cropland, the city’s government said on Wednesday.

Many roads were also damaged, along with more than 100 bridges, Xia Linmao, a Beijing vice mayor, said at a news conference, according to Aljazeera.

“I would like to express my deep condolences to those who died in the line of duty and the unfortunate victims,” Linmao told reporters, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Al Jazeera’s Katrina Yu, reporting from Beijing, said Typhoon Doksuri hit China more than a week ago but the extent of the devastation brought by flooding and building collapses is emerging only now.

“This is the worst natural disaster to high the capital in years. The last time a storm of this scale occurred was in 2012,” Yu said, noting that areas hit hardest more than a decade ago – when almost 80 people died – were against the worst affected by the recent typhoon.

“Difficult questions are now being raised as to why lessons from that previous storm were not learned, and why buildings and roads were not reinforced, and why this damage has happened yet again,” Yu said.

Other parts of China have also seen heavy flooding, with many reported killed by flood waters across northern China, which has been battered by heavy rain since late July, disrupting the lives of millions.

Officials in Beijing said last week that 147 deaths or disappearances last month were caused by natural disasters. Of those, 142 were caused by flooding or other geological calamities, China’s Ministry of Emergency Management said, Aljazeera reported.

In Hebei province, which neighbours Beijing, 15 were reported to have died and 22 were missing. And in northeastern Jilin, 14 died and one person was reported missing on Sunday.

Further north in Heilongjiang, state media reported that dozens of rivers had seen water levels rise above “warning markers” in recent days.

China’s deadliest and most destructive floods in recent history were in 1998, when 4,150 people died, most of them along the Yangtze River.

In 2021, more than 300 people died in the central province of Henan. Record rainfall inundated the provincial capital of Zhengzhou in July of that year, turning streets into rushing rivers and flooding at least part of a subway line.

Other areas in China are also suffering from the scorching summer heat and drought, which is threatening residents’ health and crop harvest.

Throughout this year, we have encountered numerous reports about the prevailing drought resulting from El Nino. The climate phenomenon causing abnormal warming of surface waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean has caused a noticeable reduction in rainfall even during monsoon. The rainfall anticipated in Nepal has shifted to Uttarakhand, India.

Addressing this issue with afforestation may not suffice, as even forested areas have seen a decline in rainfall. Finding a quick fix to this problem occurring because of a series of events spanning decades is indeed challenging.

Historically, we focused on treating drinking water and meeting irrigation needs without paying much attention to conserving water resources. Instead of investigating the reasons behind the depletion of our resources, we started searching for alternatives to address water shortages. Fundamentally a local problem, the water crisis should have been addressed locally. But it has been turned into a political matter, complicating its resolution.

The author is an environmentalist 

China's capital recorded its heaviest rainfall in at least 140 years over the past few days as remnants of Typhoon Doksuri deluged the region, turning streets into canals where emergency crews used rubber boats to rescue stranded residents, Associated Press reported.

The city recorded 744.8 millimeters (29.3 inches) of rain between Saturday and Wednesday morning, the Beijing Meteorological Bureau said Wednesday.

Beijing and the surrounding province of Hebei were hit by severe flooding because of the record rainfall, with waters rising to dangerous levels. The rain destroyed roads and knocked out power and even pipes carrying drinking water. It flooded rivers surrounding the capital, leaving cars waterlogged, while lifting others onto bridges meant for pedestrians.

The number of confirmed deaths from the torrential rains around Beijing rose to 21 on Wednesday after the body of a rescuer was recovered. Wang Hong-chun, 41, was with other rescuers in a rubber boat when it flipped over in a rapidly flowing river. Four of her teammates survived.

At least 26 people remain missing from the rains, according to Associated Press.

Among the hardest hit areas is Zhuozhou, a small city in Hebei province that borders Beijing's southwest. On Tuesday night, police there issued a plea on social media for lights to assist with rescue work.

Rescue teams traversed the flooded city in rubber boats as they evacuated residents who were stuck in their homes without running water, gas or electricity since Tuesday afternoon.

"I didn't think it would be that severe, I thought it was just a little bit of water and that it would recede," said 54-year-old Wang Huiying. She ended up spending the night on the third floor of her building as the water seeped into the first floor, which holds her steamed bread shop. All the machinery is now underwater.

It's unknown how many people are trapped in flood-stricken areas in the city and surrounding villages. Rescue teams from other provinces came to Zhuozhou to assist with evacuations.

"We have to grasp every second, every minute to save people," said Zhong Hongjun, the head of a rescue team from coastal Jiangsu province. Zhong said he had been working since 2 a.m. Wednesday when they arrived, and expects to work into the night. They've rescued about 200 people so far. "A lot of the people we saved are elderly and children," he said.

On Wednesday, waters in Gu'an county in Hebei, which borders Zhuozhou, reached as high as halfway up a pole where a surveillance camera was installed.

Gu'an county resident Liu Jiwen, 58, was evacuated from his village on Tuesday night. "There's nothing we can do. It's natural disaster," he said, Associated Press reported.

Two other people were trying to pass through the flooded areas to rescue a relative trapped in a nearby village.

Nearly 850,000 people have been relocated, local authorities in Hebei province said.

The previous record for rainfall was in 1891, the Beijing Meteorological Bureau said Wednesday, when the city received 609 millimeters (24 inches) of rain. The earliest precise measurements made by machines are from 1883.

Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, called the recent rainfall "extreme." Last year's total rainfall in Beijing did not even top 500 millimeters (19.6 inches).

Ma said there should be a review of how cities are planned because some places experience repeat flooding. "We need to avoid building large-scale construction ... in low-lying areas," Ma said.

The record rainfall from Doksuri, now downgraded to a tropical storm, may not be the last. Typhoon Khanun, which lashed Japan on Wednesday, is expected to head toward China later this week. The powerful storm, with surface winds of up to 180 kph (111 mph), may also hit Taiwan before it reaches China.

Thousands of people were evacuated to shelters in schools and other public buildings in suburban Beijing and in nearby cities. The central government is disbursing 44 million yuan ($6.1 million) for disaster relief in affected provinces, according to Associated Press.

The severity of the flooding took the Chinese capital by surprise. Beijing usually has dry summers but had a stretch of record-breaking heat this year.

The country is under the influence of monsoon winds at present.

According to the Weather Forecasting Division at the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, there will be partial to general changes across the country in the daytime.

Light to moderate rainfall is predicted in some areas of the Gandaki and Lumbini Provinces and one to two places of the Koshi, Bagmati and Sudurpaschim.

There is a chance of light to moderate rainfall in some areas of the mountainous region and limited areas of the remaining provinces.

It is predicted that one to two areas of Koshi, Bagmati, Gandaki and Lumbini Provinces will see heavy rain with thunderstorms and lightning.

In the night time, there is a chance of heavy rainfall with thunderstorms and lightning in one to two areas of the Koshi, Bagmati, Gandaki and Lumbini Provinces. 

The weather will be partly to generally cloudy throughout the country today due to the impact of the monsoon wind.

Light to moderate precipitation accompanied by lightning is taking place at some places of Bagmati, Gandaki, Lumbini and Karnali Provinces and at a few places in the rest of the provinces at present, the Meteorological Forecasting Division said.

The weather will be partly to generally cloudy across the country in the afternoon today. There is a possibility of light to moderate rainfall along with lightning at some places of Gandaki, Lumbini, Karnali and Sudurpaschim Provinces and at a few places in the rest of the country.

The Division has urged one and all to adopt alertness as there are also chances of occurrence of heavy rainfall along with thunderbolts at one or two places of Koshi, Madhes, Lumbini, Gandaki and Sudurpaschim provinces.

Likewise, it will be generally cloudy throughout the country tonight.

The Division stated in its weather bulletin that there is a possibility of light to moderate rain accompanied by lightning at a few places of the hilly region in all provinces and at one or two places in the rest of the regions.

It said there are also chances of heavy rainfall accompanied by lightning at one or two places of Koshi, Lumbini and Sudurpaschim Provinces.