Weather emergency declared as death toll mounts in China heatwave

It’s been so hot in China that people are grilling bacon and eggs in frying pans on manhole covers, or even directly on pavements sometimes heated up to 60C (140F).

In one photograph in the China Daily newspaper, a boy tended to shrimps and an egg in a pan over a manhole cover in the eastern Chinese city of Jinan.

The heatwave is the worst in at least 140 years in some parts and has left dozens of people dead. It has pushed thermometers above 40C (104F) in at least 40 cities and counties, mostly in the south and east. Authorities for the first time have declared the heat a “level 2” weather emergency – a label normally invoked for typhoons and flooding.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“It is just hot! Like in a food steamer!” 17-year-old student Xu Sichen said outside the doors of a shopping mall in the southern financial hub of Shanghai while her friend He Jiali, also 17, complained that her mobile phone had in recent days turned into a “grenade”. “I’m so worried that the phone will explode while I’m using it,” he said.

Extreme heat began hitting Shanghai and several eastern and southern provinces in early July and is expected to grip much of China through mid-August.

Shanghai set its record high temperature of 40.6C (105F) on July 26, and yesterday’s heat marked the city’s 28th day above 35C. At least 10 people died of heat stroke in the city over the past month, including a 64-year-old Taiwanese sailor, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Wu Guiyun, 50, who has a part-time job making food deliveries in Shanghai, said she has been trying to linger inside air-conditioned offices for as long as possible whenever she brings in a takeaway order. Outside, she said: “It’s so hot that I can hardly breathe.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The highest temperature overall was recorded in the city of Fenghua, which recorded its historic high of 42.7C (108.9F) on July 24.

On Tuesday, the director of the China Meteorological Administration activated a “level 2” emergency response. This level requires around-the-clock staffing and the establishment of an emergency command centre.

Related topics: