Typhoon Haikui will make landfall in northern Zhejiang Province early Wednesday, edging closer to Shanghai than typhoon Matsa - the storm that brought the city to a standstill in 2005, local weather authorities predicted Monday.

The Shanghai Meteorological Bureau raised the city's typhoon warning level to blue, its lowest level, at 2 pm Monday as the storm headed north-northwest from its location 585 kilometers southeast of the city.

"Haikui may travel north and edge close to Shanghai after making landfall near Taizhou and Ningbo in Zhejiang Province," Zhang Ruiyi, a senior official with the weather bureau, told the Global Times. "But it may also only brush past the city as it is traveling slowly at 15 kilometers per hour."

Haikui, which has a center wind speed of 118 kilometers per hour, was upgraded from a severe tropical storm to a typhoon at 5 pm Monday, according to the bureau.

Forecasters said Haikui will begin affecting Shanghai's weather Tuesday, bringing 250 to 350 millimeters of rain and winds of up to 120 kilometers per hour. The storm is also expected to lower temperatures Tuesday to between 26 C and 30 C.

In 2005, typhoon Matsa killed seven people in Shanghai after it made landfall near Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province. Heavy rain caused serious flooding across the city and strong winds toppled 2,700 trees and 400 power lines. Shanghai's Hongqiao and Pudong airports were both closed for four hours. Weather authorities said Haikui is now heading along a  similar path as Matsa.

The Shanghai Municipal Flood Control Administration issued a blue flood warning Monday. The agency has deployed more than 2,000 maintenance workers to monitor high-risk areas, such as construction sites and the Huangpu riverside, press officer Zhang Zhenyu said.

Shanghai Shentong Metro Group, the city's subway operator, said it will have 25 rescue teams on standby from Tuesday to deal with emergencies on the subway system.

The company took similar measures when typhoons Saola and Damrey brushed past the city last week.

Shanghai's subways closed for nearly three hours in 2005 during typhoon Matsa, said Lan Tian, a press officer for the subway operator. If the subway shuts down due to Haikui, the company will announce closures on its website and its official Sina microblog.

Shanghai railway police plan to have extra officers on standby at the city's three train stations to cope with possible delays from the approaching storm, Lin Ronggui, the railway police's press officer, said in a prepared statement.

Local sports authorities delayed a promotion that gave free admission to the city's athletic facilities on Wednesday to celebrate National Fitness Day. The promotion will instead take place on Friday.

Authorities have also ordered about 200,000 people living on construction sites and along the coast to evacuate from those areas by 9 pm Tuesday.