In China, more than 86 cities have called code red due to extreme temperatures. So not only Europe will have to contend with dangerous heat waves this week. Chinese meteorologists predict that temperatures could reach 40 degrees Celsius in some cities in the coming days.
Local Chinese authorities have issued warnings for several regions from central Shaanxi province to eastern coastal Jiangsu province. Temperatures could rise above 40 degrees Celsius in Zhejiang, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, the Central Meteorological Observatory said.
Also in Shanghai, the most populous city in China, code red was proclaimed. The city has more than 25 million inhabitants. Since the start of the measurements in 1873, Shanghai has only experienced 15 days with temperatures above 40 degrees.
According to a 2020 study by the British medical journal Lancet, death rates from heat waves quadrupled in China from 1990 to 2019. People age 65 or older have a 10.4 percent higher risk of dying during a heat wave, the study said. Therefore, a number of Chinese cities warn of the danger of such high temperatures.
Shelters and melting roofs
China has three ‘furnaces’: cities notorious for their scorching hot summers. The eastern city of Nanjing is one of them. Local authorities have opened underground air raid shelters to residents of the city since Sunday. The war bunkers are equipped with Wi-Fi, books, water taps, microwave ovens and of course air conditioning.
In another ‘furnace city’, Chongqing, the roof of one of the museums melted. The tiles of a traditional Chinese roof exploded as the heat dissolved the underlying tar. The city issued a red alert on Monday. A road surface in the city is also said to have cracked, causing it to rise fifteen centimeters, according to local media. The city is now deploying trucks to spray roads with water.
Climate issues
Extreme weather is not new to the Chinese population. Just last month, the south of the country had to deal with the heaviest rainfall in 60 years. Nearly half a million people were affected. A similar scene took place last year, with 300 people dying in floods that ravaged the country from heavy rainfall. The extreme temperatures China is currently experiencing was also preceded by another heat wave in June. 500 million people were affected then.
So it will not only be sweating in Italy, France and Belgium in the coming days, but also about 7600 kilometers further, in China.
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