Temperature crosses 40 degrees Celsius in Beijing, shatters all-time June record

Chinese capital Beijing on Thursday (June 22) raised orange alert, the second highest weather warning as temperatures crossed 40 degrees Celsius mark. This has made Thursday the hottest June day ever since record-keeping began. The city has warned of blistering hot weather through the weekend. A heatwave that scorched northern China a week earlier has returned.

A weather station on the southern outskirts of Beijing recorded 41.1C (106Fahrenheit) at 1:25 p.m. local time (0525 GMT), according to the municipal weather bureau.

Authorities in Beijing, a city of nearly 22 million people, have also said the temperatures could remain high at 39 degrees Celcius from Thursday to Saturday.

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Last week, Beijing along with Tianjin, Hebei and Shandong in northern and eastern China were struck by heatwaves. This prompted local authorities to take steps to safeguard crops, toensure that the tourists are safe. They also suspended outdoor work during the hottest part of the day.

Heat stroke alert

The national weather bureau issued a heat stroke alert last week. This year, this alert came almost a fortnight earlier than in previous years. Cities across northern China have battled new record temperatures.

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Increased electricity demand for air-conditioners pushed power grid load to 14.54 million kilowatts on June 15 in the port city of Tianjin. This is 23 per cent up from a year earlier. The increased load made the local authorities dispatch workers to patrol underground tunnels every day to ensure that electrical cables are working fine.

The latest round of heatwaves has coincided with the Dragon Boat Festival long weekend in China. The heatwave is also expected to hit the northern Chinese region of Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang in the far west, said China Meteorological Administration.

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

An orange alert is issued when the maximum temperature exceeds 40C in a single day, or the maximum temperature remains above 37C for two consecutive days.

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