Shanghai officials are mobilizing tens of thousands of flood-control workers in expectation of a heavy rainstorm that was expected to begin late last night.

Local meteorologists, who incorrectly called for heavy rain on Tuesday, are calling for rain last night and today to reach "rainstorm" level, meaning between 50 and 100 millimeters of precipitation during a 24 hour period.

The rain is expected to last until next Monday, said Dai Xinfu, chief meteorologists with the Shanghai Meteo-rological Bureau.

Weekend storms are not expected to be anywhere near as fierce as today's rain. Temperatures for the week-end should be between 25 and 27 degrees Celsius on Saturday and 31 degrees on Sunday.

On June 19, the city entered its annual Plum Rain Season, named after the fruit that is harvested at this time of year.

Since then, rain has dominated local weather, although it only brought a little light drizzle to the city on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Local forecasters won't say when the rainy season is expected to end.

City's flood-control auth-orities said they will keep a close eye on the water levels in the city's numerous water-ways, including the Huang-pu River and Suzhou Creek.

Xinhua news agency reported that China's flood-stricken areas along the mid-dle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River will continue to face the threat of heavy rains in the next two to three days.

The Central Meteo-rological Observatory says that most areas along the Yangtze River, including the Sichuan Basin, Chongqing Municipality as well as Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, will have heavy rain or rainstorms, with some parts experiencing downpours.

( eastday.com June 28, 2002)