The entire country officially entered the annual flood season on Monday, with the southern region moving into the critical peak period, the Ministry of Water Resources announced.

According to the latest forecast, precipitation in the northern part of Northeast China and a vast stretch of areas in the southern regions, is expected to be 10 to 20 percent above average in June, the ministry said in a media release on Monday.

It warned that above-alert floods may hit the basins of several major water bodies in the coming weeks, including some tributaries of the Dongting and Poyang lakes in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, as well as the Xijiang and Hanjiang rivers in the Pearl River basin, the Qiantangjiang River in Zhejiang province, and the Minjiang River in Fujian province.