At 1:51 p.m. local time Saturday, the temperature measured by Beijing's standard weather station in the southern suburbs of the Chinese capital briefly soared above 40 degrees Celsius.
Beijing has seen temperatures surpass 40 degrees Celsius for the third consecutive day. Photo: GI
Until Saturday, Beijing - a city of nearly 22 million people - had never had three consecutive days above 40 degrees Celsius since the establishment of the southern observatory in 1951.
In addition to Beijing, several neighboring regions such as Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Inner Mongolia and Tianjin have raised or maintained their heat wave warnings at "red", the highest level in China's four-tier warning system.
A red alert indicates temperatures could exceed 40 degrees Celsius within 24 hours. Meanwhile, as of 1:13 p.m. Saturday local time, an area of 450,000 square kilometers had recorded temperatures above 37 degrees Celsius.
“Last year’s heatwave highlighted some of the risks to China’s food supply and the potential impact on prices,” Capital Economics wrote in a note on Friday. “Another drought would hit crop yields while livestock are vulnerable to high temperatures.”
On Saturday, state media reported ground temperatures exceeding 70 degrees Celsius in some parts of Shandong - China's most populous province after Guangdong, and a major grain-growing region.
The heat wave, the second in about 10 days, was caused by warm air masses combined with high-pressure ridges in the atmosphere. The effect was amplified by thin cloud cover and long daylight hours, according to Chinese meteorologists.
In Beijing, the average number of days with temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) was 10.6 from 1990 to 2020, Beijing Daily reported, citing official data. June is not over yet, and that number has been beaten after temperatures in Beijing exceeded 35 degrees Celsius for the 11th day this year, the newspaper said.
Beijing also hit a high of 40.3 degrees Celsius on Friday, after a scorching 41.1 degrees Celsius was recorded on Thursday - the second hottest day recorded by the Chinese capital in modern times.
Beijing's all-time high temperature of 41.9 degrees Celsius was recorded on July 24, 1999. The heatwave in northern China is expected to ease on Monday before intensifying again over the weekend.
Hoang Anh (according to Beijing Daily, Reuters)
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