A major heat wave is expected to spread across large swaths of northern China this week, bringing record temperatures to some areas, according to China’s meteorological authorities.
The heat wave, which began on Saturday (8), has already triggered government weather warnings and follows the hottest spring ever recorded in the country.
The national observatory issued this Monday (10) an orange alert for high temperatures – the second most serious warning – as suffocating heat engulfed the north of the country.
On Sunday (9), in the coastal province of Shandong, seven national meteorological stations recorded the highest temperature for the beginning of June, while temperatures in the north of Hebei province and the western region of Xinjiang rose above 40ºC, according to the National Weather Service Center.
The heat wave is expected to expand further in the coming days, the CSMN said in a statement.
Local governments have also issued warnings.
Beijing issued its first yellow alert for high temperatures this summer on Saturday, warning residents to avoid leaving their homes during the hottest parts of the day.
The warning came as tens of thousands of high school graduates in the Chinese capital finished the national college entrance exam – a highly competitive two-day test known as “gaokao”. A school in Beijing’s Chaoyang district gave out free ice cream to parents waiting outside the gate in the grueling heat, state media reported.
Zheng Zhihai, chief meteorologist at the National Climate Center, told the state-run Global Times newspaper that temperatures in most parts of China were expected to be higher than normal this summer, and the number of high temperature days would also be higher than normal. the usual.
Zhong said the high temperatures are linked to El Niño, a natural climate pattern marked by warmer-than-average ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific.
China had the hottest spring on record this year. The national average temperature between March and May reached 12.3ºC, the highest since records began in 1961, with 12 national meteorological stations recording temperatures that reached or exceeded records, according to the National Meteorological Service Center.
Meanwhile, parts of southern China have faced weeks of torrential rain. In Guangdong province, record rains triggered deadly floods in April, with a Pearl River court recording the earliest arrival of its annual flood season since records began in 1998.
China also recorded its hottest year ever in 2023, as the world’s biggest polluter faced a series of relentless heatwaves and other extreme weather phenomena driven by the human-caused climate crisis.
The average temperature in China last year was 10.7C – the highest since records began in 1961, state news agency Xinhua reported. The record broke the previous record of 10.5ºC set in 2021.
China’s exceptional heat echoed global trends – with scientists confirming that 2023 was officially the hottest year on record, the result of the combined effects of El Niño and climate change.
Source: CNN Brasil
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