Northern Rainstorm Belt and response strategies

In the summer of 2025, the Northern Rainstorm Belt stretching from eastern Northwest China to the Northeast region exhibited a significant increase in summer precipitation and rainfall frequency over northern China. Cities in the north were frequently struck by extreme rainstorms, resulting in prominent disasters such as “floods in drylands and urban waterlogging”. Northern China spans a vast territory, serving not only as a major grain-producing area and a densely populated region but also as an ecological security barrier that connects the farming-pastoral ecotone and the Loess Plateau. Its stability has nationwide implications. Therefore, comprehensively enhancing flood control capacity, strengthening urban resilience, and improving climate adaptability in this region are of great significance for ensuring national food security, ecological security, and regional sustainable development. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the evolution characteristics of the Northern Rainstorm Belt and its impacts on urban waterlogging and cascading disasters in drylands. Furthermore, climate models are employed to project the evolution trends of this rainstorm belt over the next 30 years, highlighting the high risks of its “normalization” and the pattern of “northward and westward expansion”. Based on this analysis, targeted policy recommendations are proposed to enhance urban resilience, improve disaster prevention and mitigation systems, and reduce disaster risks in northern China.