Looking out from Meizhou Island on the southeast coast of China, the sea is constantly undulating. The people here have an almost instinctive sensitivity to the winds and waves.
The story of “vigil” begins here.
According to folklore, Mazu, Lin Mo Niang, can read the sky and recognize the winds and waves, making judgments before storms arrive to ensure the safety of those at sea. For fishermen, this is both a belief and a long-standing experience formed through living in harmony with nature—looking up at the clouds and listening to the wind, where life and death often hang in the balance.
This awareness of risk continues to this day.
However, storms at sea have become more complex. Climate change has made extreme weather more frequent and harder to predict. Judgments based on past experiences are being replaced by more precise observations and calculations.
In recent years, China’s meteorological system has begun to approach the ability to “detect risks in advance” in a more systematic way.
With support from the China Meteorological Administration and the Shanghai Municipal Government, the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau has collaborated with research institutions to develop an urban multi-hazard early warning system—”MAZU-Urban.” Its function is not complicated: it organizes scattered meteorological data, historical records, and real-time changes to provide more specific judgments in advance.
For ordinary people, the changes are direct—it’s not just a simple “there may be heavy rain,” but a clearer understanding of when it will come, where it will impact, and what needs to be done in advance.
This system has been used in various scenarios: the coastal areas of Putian in Fujian, urban communities in Shanghai, the Yangshan Deep Water Port at Hangzhou Bay, and even the port of Djibouti in Africa. Different regions face different types of risks, but the core need is the same—to know as early as possible and to minimize losses.
Early warnings are becoming more like a reliable tool rather than just information.
March 23 is Mazu’s birthday and also World Meteorological Day. An ancient legend from the sea coincides with modern meteorological systems on this day in a way that is not deliberate.
From relying on experience to observe clouds and measure the sea in the past to depending on systematic analysis of weather changes today, the way people handle risks is changing.
But one thing remains unchanged—
people are still finding ways to see the storm earlier.
Video source: United Nations Video Mazu Documentary Series https://webtv.un.org/zh/asset/k11/k11fquekrn
