The latest scorching heat wave has been burning the northern part of China over the past week with high temperatures in multiple places surpassing 40 C, and meteorologists predict this year could be the hottest or second-hottest on record, partly due to the El Nino phenomenon.
Since June 13, high temperatures above 35 C have been hitting multiple areas across China including the central and western parts of North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the central and northern parts of Central China's Henan Province, the central and western parts of Shandong Province, and the northern parts of Jiangsu and Anhui provinces, with the temperature in some areas exceeding 37 C, according to a report from China News Service.
The high temperatures peaked on Thursday in the northern parts of the country, with the top 10 high readings appearing in cities in North China's Hebei Province. Shijiazhuang in Hebei became the first provincial capital city to exceed 40 C this year, and places such as Chicheng county in Zhangjiakou city and Fengning in Chengde all set new records for the highest temperature in June.
The National Meteorological Center (NMC) said that this heat wave so far has the widest range and strongest intensity this year, covering North China and regions along the Yellow River and Huaihe River. The temperatures in some places have set new records.
Southern parts of China also experienced a round of extremely hot days as early as May. Particularly on May 31, the temperature in Qiaojia county in Southwest China's Yunnan Province surpassed 44 C.
The previous hottest year on record happened in 2016, but recent temperature records suggest that temperatures recorded in 2023 may be approaching those in 2016.
