China’s eastern industrial heartlands continued to swelter this week, with at least two people dying from heatstroke, as it emerged last month was the world’s second hottest July on record.
Many more have fallen ill across the country, as temperatures hovered around 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) for the eighth day on the eastern seaboard, threatening a power crunch in its population centres.
Over the next three days, most areas south of the Yangtze River, which empties into the sea in Shanghai, are expected to bake in 37C-39C heat, with temperatures in parts of Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces exceeding 40C, forecasters said on Thursday.
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After sweltering in was its hottest July in observed modern history, China has been hit by extreme heat, particularly in the east and south of the country. Zhejiang’s provincial capital Hangzhou recorded a 41.9C historical high on August 3.
Emergency services in Shenzhen, a city of 18 million people in Guangdong province, said it had made 88 emergency house calls due to heat-related illnesses from August 1-6.
In 2022, China was hit by the worst heatwaves since 1961, with many parts of the country enduring a 79-day hot spell from June 13 to August 30. No official death tally has been disclosed.
China’s Ministry of Emergency Management said 554 people died or went missing that year “due to natural disasters”.
Heat-related deaths can be hard to categorise, as a fatality owing to a heat-stroke could be classified differently if the cause of death was a heart attack or organ failure.
In a 2023 report published in the medical journal The Lancet, heatwave-related mortality in China was estimated at 50,900 deaths in 2022, doubling from 2021.
Arctic Sea Ice Down
Above-average temperatures were also recorded in southern and eastern Europe, the western United States, western Canada, most of Africa, the Middle East, Asia and eastern Antarctica, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said on Thursday.
Near or below-average temperatures were seen in northwestern Europe, western Antarctica, parts of the United States, South America and Australia.
July 2024 was also wetter than average in northern Europe and southeastern Turkey while drought warnings persisted in southern and eastern Europe.
Arctic sea ice was down more than in 2022 and 2023 at 7% below average though not as severe as the record 14% drop in 2020. Antarctic sea ice was the second lowest extent for July at 11% below average compared with 15% below in July last year.
Global sea temperatures remain at near record highs with this July only 0.1 C below July last year, ending a 15-month consecutive new record streak.
- Reuters with additional editing by Sean O’Meara
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