# Beijing Extreme Weather & Emergencies: Warnings, Closures and Who to Call > How to read Beijing's blue-yellow-orange-red warnings in ten seconds, the rain thresholds behind each level, which areas flood, what closes, and the emergency and consular numbers worth saving before you travel. _Category: health · Reading time: 7 min read_ Beijing's weather is mostly unremarkable for a visitor: dry, sunny, four distinct seasons. The exceptions are real, though. Summer brings short, violent rain and the occasional region-wide storm; July and August regularly push past 35°C; spring can deliver a sandstorm that grounds flights; and winter sits around −10°C with ice on shaded stone. This guide explains the city's official colour-coded warning system so you can read an alert in ten seconds, tells you what actually closes, which areas to stay away from when it rains hard, and lists the numbers worth saving before you need them. ## How the warning system works Beijing runs one city-wide standard for meteorological disaster warnings, revised in 2025. Rain, lightning and wind warnings have four levels — blue, yellow, orange and red, with red the most severe; hail and heat have three, running yellow, orange and red. Colour depth equals risk: blue is a general risk worth watching, yellow means the weather is arriving and unnecessary outdoor plans should be cut, orange means outdoor activities and open-air work should stop, and red means extreme — stay in if you can. Approval rises with severity: blue and yellow come from the municipal meteorological bureau, orange has to be cleared by the city emergency office and a vice-mayor, and red by the city's top official. There is also a separate list of eleven categories that define extreme weather for the city — rain at orange or above, wind at orange or above, hail at red, heat at red, snow at yellow or above, cold wave at orange or above. - **Blue, yellow, orange, red** — darkest is worst - **Orange means stop outdoor plans; red means stay in** - **The higher the level, the higher the official who approves it** ## Heavy rain: the numbers and the rules Rain warnings are set by measurable thresholds, which makes them easy to judge. Blue: 30 mm in an hour, or 50 mm in six hours, or 70 mm in 24. Yellow: 50 mm in an hour, 70 mm in six, 100 mm in 24. Orange: 70 mm in an hour, 100 mm in six, 150 mm in 24. Red: 100 mm in an hour, 150 mm in six, 200 mm in 24. The statutory flood season runs from 1 June to 15 September. The defensive guidance escalates cleanly: at blue, expect standing water at underpasses and low-lying roads and drive around them; at yellow, stay away from river channels and drainage ditches and treat any mountain area as a flash-flood risk; at orange, stop hiking and walking trips entirely; at red, stay in and never attempt to wade a flooded underpass or low bridge opening. - **Blue 30 mm/hour, yellow 50, orange 70, red 100** - **Flood season runs 1 June to 15 September** - **Never wade a flooded underpass** — that is how people die ## The places to avoid when it rains hard This is the part that matters most to a visitor, because the danger is not the rain itself but the water and the terrain. The mountain districts to the west and north — Mentougou, Fangshan, Miyun, Yanqing — are the ones that flood and lose roads during extreme rain; valley and gorge scenery closes, and a day trip there on a wet forecast is a genuinely bad plan. In the city, the dangerous places are sunken road tunnels, low bridge underpasses, basement car parks and riverbanks. The metro is usually the safest way to move, though some surface sections slow or suspend. The Great Wall sections and mountain parks close at short notice under orange or red rain, wind or lightning — check the same morning rather than the night before. - **Mountain districts flood** — postpone gorge and Great Wall day trips - **Underpasses, tunnels and basement car parks are the urban killers** - **Attractions close at short notice** — check on the morning ## Heat: 35, 37 and 40 degrees Heat warnings have three levels. Yellow means three consecutive days above 35°C; orange means the temperature will reach 37°C within 24 hours; red means 40°C within 24 hours. July and August are the months, and the city regularly passes 35°C with real humidity. The practical response is to move the day earlier: the Great Wall, the open courtyards of the Forbidden City and anything without shade are punishing between 11:00 and 15:00. Drink more than feels necessary and add electrolytes rather than water alone. Know the signs of heat exhaustion — dizziness, headache, nausea, and skin that is hot but has stopped sweating — and treat them as a reason to stop, not to push on. Museums, the aquarium and the big malls are the standard refuge and all are air-conditioned. - **Yellow 35°C for three days, orange 37°C, red 40°C** - **Move outdoor sights to early morning and avoid 11:00 to 15:00** - **Museums and malls are the air-conditioned refuge** ## Wind, sand, snow and cold Wind warnings run blue (average force 6 or gusts of 8), yellow (8 or gusts of 10), orange (10 or gusts of 12) and red (12 or gusts of 14). At blue, close windows and secure anything on a balcony; at yellow, avoid walking directly beneath tall buildings; at orange and above, sites stop work and temporary structures and hoardings come down. Sandstorms are a spring phenomenon, mostly March to May — a yellow sandstorm warning means visibility below a kilometre and a red one below 50 metres, when you should not go out at all. Snow: blue is 4 mm in 12 hours, yellow 6 mm, orange 10 mm in six hours, red 15 mm in six. A cold wave at orange means the daily minimum falls 12°C within 24 hours and lands at or below freezing, with average wind force 6 or above. Winter itself is dry and bright, with lows around −10°C; the risk is ice on shaded stone, and the Forbidden City's polished flagstones and marble steps are genuinely slippery. - **Wind orange and above** — away from tall buildings and hoardings - **Spring sandstorms** — under 1 km visibility at yellow, 50 m at red - **Winter lows near −10°C and polished stone turns icy** ## Getting warnings without relying on one source Do not depend on a single channel. The municipal meteorological bureau publishes warnings on its own site, the national weather service carries the same feed, and alerts also reach phones as SMS from the national emergency warning centre. In practice the fastest source is often human: hotel front desks hear within minutes and will usually tell you unprompted, and they also know which attractions have closed. Navigation apps increasingly flag flooded sections. Set up one app, one message channel and one person, and check attraction status the morning you plan to go. - **Two automated sources plus the hotel front desk** - **Ask the front desk to flag warnings** — they hear first - **Check attraction status on the morning, not the night before** ## Numbers to save before you need them Save these before you travel, not during an incident. Police 110, fire 119, ambulance 120, traffic accidents 122. The city's all-purpose service hotline is 12345, which has English service and is the right number for non-urgent problems, complaints and being pointed at the correct office. For anything involving a lost passport, detention or a serious incident, the foreign ministry runs a 24-hour consular protection hotline on 12308, reachable from abroad as +86-10-12308; your own embassy number belongs in the same list. Keep your passport number, your hotel's name written in Chinese characters and your travel insurance emergency line together in one note. - **110 police, 119 fire, 120 ambulance, 122 traffic** - **12345 city hotline, with English service** - **12308 consular protection, 24 hours** ## Build in a buffer - **Screenshot your hotel address in Chinese characters** - **Carry a power bank** — a dead phone ends the day - **Keep one indoor option in every day's plan** - **Refill water the night before** - **Save 12308 and your embassy number** - **Check attraction status the morning you go** ## Where to stay **KOULING Ruiyue Hotel** — 5m from Guogongzhuang Metro Station · 9.6/10 · US$26 View hotel: https://12001.net/hotels/ruiyue/ KOULING Ruiyue is 5 metres from Guogongzhuang Metro (Line 9 / Fangshan Line), rated 9.6/10, rooms from US$26. The door is five metres from an underground line, which is the difference between a soaked walk and a dry one in a summer downpour, and the front desk follows the official warning feed and will tell you what has closed before you set out. ## Where to stay **KOULING Hotel Beijing Donggaodi** — 7 min walk to Wufutang Metro Station (Line 8) · 9.4/10 · US$19 View hotel: https://12001.net/hotels/donggaodi/ KOULING Donggaodi is a 7-minute walk from Wufutang Station on Line 8, with the China Space Museum about two kilometres away as the obvious indoor plan when an orange warning lands. Staff watch the warning feed and can point you at a museum day instead of a mountain day; the free laundry is the amenity that matters after a storm, because everything you were wearing can be washed and dried overnight. --- Source: https://12001.net/guides/beijing-extreme-weather/ © KOULING Hotels