On Sunday, a remote township in the Turpan Depression registered a maximum air temperature of 52.2 degrees Celsius, smashing China’s national record of 50.3 degrees Celsius set in 2015, also in the basin.
On that day, the oasis city of Turpan west of the Flaming Mountains saw the highest air temperatures at 31 local weather stations exceed 45 degrees Celsius, with at most five of them breaking above 50 degrees Celsius, according to state media on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Beijing logged its 27th day of temperatures of more than 35 degrees Celsius, setting a new local record for the most number of high-temperature days in a year. The Chinese capital’s previous record was 26 days, set in 2000.
These unprecedented temperatures have added new urgency for nations around the globe to tackle climate change that scientists say will make heat waves more frequent, severe and lethal.
In contrast to the extreme heat, heavy rains, thunderstorms, gales and hail are expected to lash other parts of China over the next 18 hours, according to the country’s National Meteorological Centre.
With the world’s two biggest economies at odds over issues ranging from trade to Taiwan, Kerry told Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng on Wednesday that climate change must be handled separately to broader diplomatic problems.
“It is a universal threat to everybody on the planet and requires the largest nations in the world, the largest economies in the world, the largest emitters in the world, to come together in order to do work not just for ourselves, but for all mankind,” Kerry told Han.
Kerry has also held meetings with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi and Premier Li Qiang as well as veteran climate envoy Xie Zhenhua in a bid to rebuild trust between the two sides ahead of COP28 climate talks in Dubai at the end of the year.
Source: CNA
