Beijing soars above 40 deg Celsius, smashes June record

People shield themselves with umbrellas and face masks from the sun amid an orange alert for heatwave in Beijing on June 22, 2023. - Reuters

BEIJING (Reuters): The temperature in Beijing soared above 40 degrees Celsius on Thursday (June 22) for the first time since 2014 and broke the record for the hottest day in June, with heatwaves that had seared northern China a week earlier expected to persist through the weekend.

A weather station in the city's southern suburbs considered to be Beijing's main gauge recorded 40.7 deg C (105.3 Fahrenheit) at 2:30pm (0630 GMT), according to the municipal weather bureau, the first breach of the 40 deg C threshold since May 29, 2014.

Thursday has become Beijing's hottest day in the month of June since modern meteorological records began. The previous all-time high was logged on June 10, 1961, when the mercury rose to 40.6 deg C.

In the small township of Tanghekou in Beijing's northeast, the temperature climbed as high as 41.8 deb C, clinching the title of the hottest spot in China on Thursday.

Beijing, a city of nearly 22 million people, raised an orange alert, the second-highest weather warning, saying temperatures could be as high as 39 deg C from Thursday to Saturday.

Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and Shandong in northern and eastern China were hammered by heatwaves last week, with the national weather bureau issuing an alert for heat stroke, almost a fortnight earlier than in previous years.

The heatwaves also prompted authorities to step up efforts to safeguard crops, ensure the safety of tourists, and suspend outdoor work during the hottest part of the day.

In Tianjin, a port city with a population of more than 13 million, increased demand for air-conditioning pushed its power grid load to 14.54 million kilowatts on June 15, up 23% from a year earlier, and spurred its utility department to dispatch workers to patrol underground tunnels every day to ensure electrical cables are in working order.

On Thursday, the temperature in Tianjin's urban district reached 41.2 deg C, smashing local records.

The latest round of heatwaves, coinciding with the Dragon Boat Festival long weekend in China, will also hit the northern Chinese region of Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang in the far west, according to the China Meteorological Administration.

China has a four-tier, colour-coded weather warning system, with red the most severe, followed by orange, yellow and blue.