China upgrades alert for Typhoon Pakhar

China upgraded its warning for Typhoon Parkhar to the second highest level Saturday afternoon, as it was estimated to make landfall in coastal areas of Guangdong Province Sunday.

The National Meteorological Center (NMC) issued an orange alert for Typhoon Parkhar on 6 p.m., after issuing a yellow alert Friday evening.

At 5 p.m. Saturday, the eye of Parkhar was above the South China Sea some 670 km away from Taishan, Guangdong, packing winds of up to 23 meters per second, the NMC said in a statement.

The NMC forecast it would move northwestward to make landfall near the cities of Shenzhen and Yangjiang in Guangdong Sunday, and then move west to Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region while losing strength.

The agency forecast Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan and Fujian provinces will see torrential rain in the coming day.

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