China logs 52.2 Celsius as extreme weather rewrites records

BEIJING, July 17 (BNA): A remote town in China’s arid northwest was hit with temperatures exceeding 52C (126F) on Sunday, state media reported, a record for a country that was battling sub-50C weather just six months ago. .

Temperatures in the town of Sanbao in Xinjiang’s Turpan Depression rose to 52.2 degrees Celsius on Sunday, state-run newspaper Xinjiang Daily reported on Monday, with the record heat expected to continue for at least five more days.

Sunday’s temperature smashed the previous record of 50.3 degrees Celsius, which was measured in 2015 near Eiding in the depression, a vast basin of sand dunes and dry lakes more than 150 meters (492 feet) below sea level, according to Reuters. .

Since April, countries across Asia have been hit by several rounds of record temperatures, raising concerns about their ability to adapt to a rapidly changing climate. Climate experts say the goal of keeping long-term global warming to within 1.5°C is a long way off.

Long bouts of high temperatures in China have challenged power grids and crops, and fears are growing of a possible repeat of last year’s drought, the most intense in 60 years.

China is no stranger to massive temperature fluctuations across the seasons, but the fluctuations are widening.

On January 22, temperatures in Mohe, a city in northeastern Heilongjiang Province, dropped to minus 53 degrees Celsius, according to the local meteorological bureau, breaking China’s all-time low of 52.3 degrees Celsius in 1969.

Since then, a decade ago, heavy rains fell in central China, destroying wheat fields in an area known as the country’s granary.

This week, the United States and China are looking to revive efforts to combat global warming, with US special envoy for climate John Kerry in Beijing holding talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinhua.

MI