Ahead of more searing temperatures, a crippling drought exacerbated by a record heatwave has spread out across half of China and reached the normally frigid Tibetan Plateau.
China, the world’s second-largest economy, has been hit by heatwaves, flash floods and droughts – phenomena that scientists say are becoming more frequent and intense due to climate change.
It was gathered that Southern China has recorded its longest continuous period of high temperatures since records began more than sixty years ago, while experts revealed that the intensity, scope and duration of the heatwave could make it one of the worst recorded in global history.
However, a chart from the National Climate Centre showed that swathes of southern China – including the Tibetan Plateau – were experiencing “severe” to “extraordinary” drought conditions.
While the worst-affected area – the Yangtze River basin, stretching from coastal Shanghai to Sichuan province in China’s southwest – is home to over three hundred and seventy million people and contains several manufacturing hubs including the megacity of Chongqing.
Furthermore, the China Meteorological Administration today predicted continued high temperatures of up to forty degrees Celsius in Chongqing and the provinces of Sichuan and Zhejiang.
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