ZHENGZHOU — Central China's Henan province, which was hit hard by torrential rains in July, issued the highest alert for rainstorms at 1:20 pm on Aug 22, the provincial weather bureau said.

The bureau forecast a new round of downpours measuring over 100 mm in the cities of Pingdingshan, Luohe, Xuchang, Zhengzhou, Kaifeng, Nanyang and Zhoukou on the afternoon of Aug 22.

The province also launched a level-II emergency response to floods on the noon of Aug 21.

Henan was hit by heavy rain from July 16 that had claimed 302 lives by Aug 2, with another 50 people remaining missing.

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