Key points
- 152 weather observatories have recorded temperatures over 40 degrees Celsius
- Temperatures at some areas were forecast to reach as high as 50C
- China has also issued jointly issued a high-temperature health risk warning
ISLAMABAD: China has recorded its highest number of high-temperature days since mid-March, marking a new heat record, an official from the China Meteorological Administration said.
Al Jazeera cited the official as saying that 152 national weather observatories in China have recorded temperatures over 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) since mid-July.
It also sent an alert to the country’s power industry to take timely response measures to handle a surge in power consumption as people turn to air conditioning and fans to tackle the soaring temperatures.
Sweltering heat
Last week, sweltering heat stretched from the densely populated city of Chongqing in the southwest of the country to Guangzhou on the coast, enveloping an area that is home to more than 200 million people.
In some parts of the central provinces of Hubei and Hunan, which are the same size as Italy and the United Kingdom (UK), apparent temperatures, which is a measure of how hot the combination of heat, humidity and wind makes people feel, were forecast to reach as high as 50C (122F) last week.
Equivalent apparent temperatures were also expected in the southern provinces of Jiangxi and Guangdong – home to populations equal to the total of Spain and Mexico, according to Al Jazeera.
China’s Sanfu season — an agricultural marker denoting the peak of summer and believed to have been in use for more than two millennia — typically begins in mid-July and lasts through late August.
This year it is forecast to run until August 19.
Health risk warning
According to Xinhua, the National Disease Control and Prevention Administration and the China Meteorological Administration had jointly issued a high-temperature health risk warning, the first of its kind in history.
China has made adapting to climate change a priority. Notably, in 2024, the country released a national plan to build early warning systems for climate-related health risks, Xinhua reported.
