Tropical storm Haima, the 21st of its kind this year, hit eastern Zhejiang Province at Wenzhou City around midday yesterday, the local meteorological observatory said.

The eye of Haima, which means sea horse in Chinese, caused fresh gales and is moving in the northwestward direction at a speed of 20 kilometers per hour, said the observatory.

Under its impact, 15 weather stations across the province monitored rainfall of 50 millimeters each, three of which even had 100 mm of showers, between 8am on Sunday and 8am yesterday.

By press time, no reports of damages caused by the tropical storm were available.

As the eye of the storm passes, there will be strong gale to hurricane winds in offshore areas along the provincial coast while gale and torrential rains are likely in eastern and southern Zhejiang today, the observatory said, adding that the storm will be reduced to a low tropical pressure upon landing and will sweep through areas, including Wenzhou, Taizhou, Jinhua, Shaoxing, Hangzhou, and Huzhou.

Local government organizations throughout the province are on high alert.