Warnings with blue, yellow, orange and red labels will be broadcast in Chinese and English on TV and radio, and cellphone owners will receive similar messages on their handsets, the China Daily reported.

"The system will help people prepare for and avoid the harm of bad weather and enable them to know about impending calamities as early as possible," said Zhang Guocai, spokesman of the China Meteorological Administration.

The color codes will be used for a range of extreme weather conditions, including typhoons, heat waves and hailstorms, according to the paper.

Blue will mark the lowest alert level and red the highest, indicating, for instance, that the average wind force has reached 12 on the Beaufort scale and that a typhoon will hit within six hours.

The government appears under pressure to issue color code standards in order to avoid confusion, as some cities such as Shanghai have already developed their own warning systems.

Almost half a million people have been evacuated in eastern China Wednesday as it braced for Typhoon Aere, just weeks after a similar storm left 164 people dead and 1,800 injured.

TERRA.WIRE