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Global warming blamed as China endures freak weather
Global warming was under a fierce spotlight in China on Monday as forecasters said Shanghai was set for its hottest summer on record, while flood and drought wreaked havoc in other parts of the country. Shanghai experienced its second hottest day on record on Sunday when the mercury touched 39.6 degrees Celsius (103.3 degrees Fahrenheit), with similarly high temperatures expected this week, the Shanghai Daily said. Sunday's heat wave caused power and water consumption for the 17 million people of China's economic hub to hit all-time highs, which posed a "grave supply threat", according to the paper. Weather forecasters are now expecting Shanghai to swelter through at least 22 days of temperatures above 35 degrees this summer, which would make it the hottest since records first were kept, the paper said. Meanwhile, flood and drought are continuing to cause major problems across much of the country, with scientists blaming global warming for the unusual weather, the China Daily reported. "Unbalanced distribution of rainstorms, persistent high temperatures, severe drought and powerful typhoons are all the result of climate change," the China Daily said, citing a number of weather experts. Floods have killed 90 people over the past week in the mountainous regions of northwest China's Xinjiang region, while hailstorms and rain claimed another 10 lives in central Hubei province over the weekend, according to the paper. More than 700 people have died from flood-related disasters across China so far this year, the China Daily said. Meanwhile north and northeast China is enduring its worst drought in two decades, according to the director of the China Meteorological Administration climate change monitoring office, Xu Ying. Posted by: Delphi 2007-07-30 |
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