Meteorologists in Pingtan Comprehensive Pilot Zone raised the yellow alert on the evening of Sept 27, in light of the forthcoming typhoon Megi, and noted that two towns within the jurisdiction -- Zhonglou and Pingyuan -- had already seen up tp 50 millimeters of rain by 8:00 pm.

The forecast was for a number of towns seeing more than 50 millimeters in the following 6 hours.

Under China's color-coded severe weather warning system, red indicates extremely serious, followed in descending order by orange, yellow and blue.