Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - Shanghai issued its highest alert for extreme heat for the third time this summer as Thursday's tempe...
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| Image: Reuters |
Berita 24 English - Shanghai issued its highest alert for extreme heat for the third time this summer as Thursday's temperatures in China's most populated metropolis seemed certain to break records.
A red alert was issued by the 25 million-person city, warning that during the following 24 hours, temperatures were predicted to increase to at least 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).
Despite the fact that Shanghai has only issued 17 red alerts since records have been kept in 1873, the city has issued three in the last five days.
The city sweltered on Wednesday as temperatures soared to 40.9C, matching a record set in late July 2017.
The extremely hot spell that occurred during the previous month has had an impact on half of China. Over the past week, heat waves have affected the Yangtze River valley, which includes major cities from Shanghai to Chongqing in the centre of China.
According to state media, the load on the electrical systems of seven provinces and regions has increased to an all-time high due to the increased demand for air conditioning.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) reported on Thursday that on Tuesday, China's maximum electricity load reached an all-time high of 1.22 billion kilowatts.
The state planner stated that every effort was being made to guarantee the availability of energy throughout the summer peak demand season.
(Albee Zhang and Ryan Woo reported; Simon Cameron-Moore edited.)
