BEIJING – China's meteorological authority on Saturday upgraded its emergency response for Typhoon Dolphin to Level III and raised the typhoon warning from yellow to orange as the 13th typhoon of 2026 moves closer to the country's eastern coast.

The China Meteorological Administration upgraded the response from Level IV to Level III, while the National Meteorological Center had earlier upgraded its typhoon warning to orange.

At 9:00 am Saturday, the center of Typhoon Dolphin was located over the southern East China Sea, about 520 km east of Wenzhou in East China's Zhejiang province, and is forecast to move northwestward at a speed of 10 to 15 km per hour with its intensity remaining stable or slightly strengthening.

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The typhoon is expected to make landfall along the coast between Zhoushan in Zhejiang province and Fuding in Fujian province from Sunday night to Monday morning.

Zhejiang raised its typhoon emergency response to the second-highest level Saturday. More than 4,000 local monitors have been deployed to inspect over 7,500 areas considered at risk of landslides and other geological disasters.

The province had suspended services on all 162 of its passenger ferry routes, halted work at all 193 offshore projects, and called 474 construction vessels to port by Friday morning.

In Fujian province, authorities had suspended 40 passenger ferry routes and halted work at 115 offshore construction sites by Saturday noon. All 1,210 registered fishing boats in the coastal city of Fuding had returned to port.

Shanghai issued a blue typhoon alert Friday, with forecasters warning that the storm could bring strong winds and heavy rain to the city for as long as four days. Some train services in the Yangtze River Delta will be suspended from Sunday.

Compared with Typhoon Bavi, which made a landfall in the country in July, Typhoon Dolphin may bring stronger winds and heavier rainfall, said Xu Yinglong, chief forecaster at the National Meteorological Center.

East China and other regions likely to be affected should give priority to typhoon response and take precautions against high winds, rainstorms and secondary disasters, Xu noted.

Also on Saturday, a Level-IV emergency response was activated for flood and typhoon control in Jiangsu and Anhui provinces, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.

China has a four-tier color-coded weather warning system for typhoons, with red representing the most severe, followed by orange, yellow and blue. It also has a four-tier emergency response system, with Level I being the highest.

On Friday, the Ministry of Water Resources activated a Level-IV emergency flood response for six provincial regions - Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian and Jiangxi, all located in East China. These regions will see downpours from Saturday to Wednesday, with several rivers expected to record substantial water level rises, the ministry said.

It has instructed local authorities to strengthen monitoring and research efforts, and manage water projects well in a bid to guard against floods at rivers and reservoirs, as well as the threat of mountain torrents.

Meanwhile, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters raised its emergency response for flood and typhoon control in Zhejiang and Fujian provinces to Level-III from Level-IV.

A joint consultation involving several central government departments and provincial authorities was held on Friday, urging thorough preparations for the worst by evacuating people from risky areas and stepping up flood control at rivers and lakes, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.

China has a four-tier flood-control emergency response system, with Level I being the most severe.