Amid scorching heatwave China's power usage hits record-breaking levels

Beijing: China continues to remain under the grip of an extreme heatwave and this has in turn threatened crops and people's lives and pushed China's power usage to record-breaking levels, media reports said. As many as 900 million people in China are roasting under unbearable temperatures. To make matters worse, this heatwave is expected to persist in August, Global Times reported citing the Chinese authorities.

China is bracing for intense heat in the coming month and people are resorting to all sorts of ways to get respite from this scorching heatwave. For instance, shops in Shanghai`s Yuyuan Garden use misty spray heat prevention devices. This summer China is registering sweltering temperatures and the hot air has blanketed many parts of China including Shanghai, Southwest China`s Sichuan Province and East China`s Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.

The temperatures are soaring above 44 C, according to the meteorological authority. Sun Shao, a senior researcher at National Climate Center, China Meteorological Administration, said that the heatwave in 2022 has come earlier, and the average temperatures for June have hit the highest since 1873. As per the National Climate Center, China has experienced this year`s first regional hot weather, which has seen 71 national weather stations break records with the highest temperature recorded at 44.2 C in Lingshou, North China`s Hebei Province.

A video by the short-video official account of youth.cn Qingfengxia showing an ant that died a few seconds after being placed on the sidewalk in Danyang, East China`s Jiangsu Province, was widely circulated on social media. On Saturday, temperatures in the various regions of the country including Xinjiang and East Zhejiang and provinces have surpassed 40 degrees Celsius, according to the National Meteorological Center (NMC).

The Xinjiang region raised the high-temperature alert from orange to red, the highest in China`s four-tier weather warning system for extreme heat. At around 4 pm, the temperature in Turpan, Xinjiang reached 43.2 degrees Celsius, according to real-time data released by the NMC, Global Times reported.World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Secretary-General last week warned that heatwaves will happen more frequently because of climate change, adding that the connection has been clearly demonstrated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC).

After the UK broke an all-time high record, Petteri Taalas said, "In the future, this kind of heatwaves are going to be normal. We will see stronger extremes. We have pumped so much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that the negative trend will continue for decades. We haven`t been able to reduce our emissions, globally."

"I hope that this will be a wake-up call for governments and that it will have an impact on voting behaviours in democratic countries," he said. According to IPCC, temperatures will rise more quickly in European areas than elsewhere.