BEIJING:Â Beijing on Friday (Jun 23) upgraded its warning for hot weather to “red” – the highest in a colour-coded alert system – with many parts of the Chinese capital roasting in temperatures of up to 40 degrees Celsius.
The official temperature for the capital, which is measured from its southern suburbs observatory, hit 40 degrees Celsius just after 1.30pm on Friday, according to the Beijing Municipal Meteorological Observatory.
“This is the first time since the establishment of the observatory that there has been a high temperature of more than 40Â degrees Celsius for two consecutive days,” Zhang Yingxin, chief forecaster of the Municipal Meteorological Observatory, said at a press briefing. The observatory was founded in 1951.
On Thursday, the maximum temperature in the city of nearly 22 million people breached 41Â degrees Celsius and shattered the record for the hottest day in June.
A weather station in its southern suburbs, considered to be Beijing’s main gauge, recorded 41.1Â degrees Celsius in the afternoon. The previous June high was logged on Jun 10, 1961, when the mercury hit 40.6 degrees Celsius.
The daily maximum logged on Thursday was the city’s second-highest in history, just below the 41.9Â degrees Celsius recorded by Beijing on Jul 24, 1999.
China has a four-tier weather warning system, with red the most severe, followed by orange, yellow and blue.
 A red alert indicates the temperature is set to rise above 40 degrees Celsius within 24 hours.
Source: CNA
