June has been exceptionally hot, which can be seen in large cities as a strong increase in electricity consumption. The heat wave is predicted to continue at least until the end of this week.
BEIJING In the afternoons, Ritan park is usually full of people taking their lunch breaks and working out. On Thursday, only a few people walked through the star gates leading to the park.
– Well, it’s hot, it’s hot, the men who did the planting work commented as they wiped the sweat from their foreheads.
People in the park protected themselves from the sun with long hats and umbrellas. A couple wearing painfully hot long-sleeved and leggy outfits also walked past me.
However, all the protection was necessary, as the sun was hotter in Beijing than ever before in the city’s recorded history. On Thursday afternoon, a temperature of 40.7 degrees Celsius was measured. In Tanghekou outside Beijing, the thermometer rose to 41.8.
A good hundred kilometers away in the big city of Tianjin, the previous heat record was also broken. The mercury rose to 41.2 degrees there.
Earlier than usual and in a wider area
The whole of June has been exceptionally hot in the eastern and northeastern parts of China. In addition to Beijing and Tianjin, record temperatures have been measured in Hebei, Shandong and Shenyang, among others.
– The heat wave arrived earlier, it is wider and its effects are greater than usual, said the director of the Shenyang Meteorological Office Xia Chuantong on China’s CCTV channel.
An orange warning has been issued in Beijing, which has a population of 22 million. It is the second most serious weather warning after red. The possibility of heat stroke is also warned. At least one elderly person is known to have died from it at the end of last week.
The forecast for Beijing is 39 degrees until Saturday.
On dragon boats in the heat
The exceptionally hot June has required a lot of electricity. The electricity consumption of Tianjin, with a population of 13 million, was 14.54 million kilowatts during the first two weeks of the month, which is 23 percent more than in the same period a year earlier.
For the tourism industry, which is recovering the least from the corona crisis, the record-breaking heat is another nasty setback.
In various parts of China, annual dragon boat festivals are organized at the weekend. The number of participants in the events threatens to remain low, especially in the eastern and northeastern parts of the country.