BEIJING: The temperature in Beijing soared above 40 degrees Celsius on Thursday (Jun 22) for the first time since 2014 as the Chinese capital warned of blistering hot weather through the weekend with the return of heatwaves that scorched northern China a week earlier.
A weather station on the southern outskirts of Beijing recorded 40.1 degrees Celsius at 1.25pm local time, according to the municipal weather bureau, marking the first breach of the 40 degrees Celsius threshold since May 29, 2014.
Early on Thursday the city of nearly 22 million people raised an orange alert, the second highest weather warning, saying that temperatures could rise as high as 39 degrees Celsius in most parts of the city from Thursday to Saturday.
Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and Shandong in northern China were hammered by heatwaves last week, prompting local authorities to step up efforts to safeguard crops, ensure the safety of tourists, and suspend outdoor work during the hottest part of the day.
Last week, the national weather bureau issued an alert for heat stroke, almost a fortnight earlier than in previous years, as new record temperatures for the month of June assailed cities across northern China.
In the port city of Tianjin, increased demand for air-conditioning pushed its power grid load to 14.54 million kilowatts on Jun 15, up 23 per cent from a year earlier, and spurred its local utility department to dispatch workers to patrol underground tunnels every day to ensure electrical cables are in working order.