Over the next few days, eastern and northern parts of China will still see large amount of rainfall, with storms in part of those areas, said the Central Meteorological Observatory.

The rainfall will help relieve the spring drought in northern and northwestern provinces and offer local farmers good opportunities for spring seeding, said the observatory.

But Sunday's storm in part of those areas also adversely affected the reaping of wheat and even caused disasters such as turbulent mountain torrents and blocked transport in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and North China's Shanxi Province, the paper said.

Chen Tingliang, a senior engineer at Beijing Meteorological Observatory, warned Sunday of the potential risks of flooding in the "troublesome" Yangtze River valley, according to the paper.

According to Chen, provinces in the middle and lower reaches of the river are still in their annual rainy season.

The weekend's rain also put a dampener on the hot, sunny days experienced in northern China recently.

In Beijing, the rainfall of 12 millimeters lowered the temperature by 10 degrees centigrade. It was the capital's second rainfall this year and the first of the summer, the paper said.

(People?s Daily June 10, 2002)