China says July was its hottest month since records began

China is the world’s biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases that scientists say are driving climate change and making extreme weather more frequent and intense.

Heatwaves this summer have scorched parts of northern China while torrential rains have triggered floods and landslides in central and southern areas.

Last month was “the hottest July since complete observations began in 1961, and the hottest single month in the history of observation”, the national weather office said Thursday.

It said the average air temperature in China in July was 23.21 degrees Celsius (73.78 degrees Fahrenheit), exceeding the previous record of 23.17C (73.71F) in 2017.

The mean temperature in every province was also “higher than the average for previous years”, with the southwestern provinces of Guizhou and Yunnan logging their highest averages, the weather office said.

It forecast that the mercury would continue to climb in eastern regions this week, including in the megacity of Shanghai where a red alert for extreme heat was in place on Thursday.

The nearby city of Hangzhou may hit 43C (109F) on Saturday, which would break its all-time record.

Middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River would likely see daily temperatures fall no lower than 30C (86F), it said.

As a result, people “must not relax efforts to avoid the heat and keep cool”.

Extreme summer

The report came little more than a week after Earth experienced its warmest day in recorded history.

Preliminary data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service showed the daily global average temperature was 17.15C (62.9F) on July 22.

That was 0.06C hotter than the day before, which itself broke the all-time high temperature set a year earlier by a small margin.

China has pledged to bring emissions of carbon dioxide to a peak by 2030 and to net zero by 2060 but has resisted calls to be bolder.

It long depended on highly polluting coal power to fuel its massive economy but has emerged as a renewable energy leader in recent years.

Research showed last month that China is building almost twice as much wind and solar energy capacity as every other country combined.

Extreme weather across large parts of the country has triggered deadly natural disasters in the past few weeks.

State media reported Tuesday that at least seven people had died after heavy rain and flooding hit central Hunan province.

The downpours have been caused by the remnants of Typhoon Gaemi, which made landfall in eastern China last week.

A landslide in Hunan on Sunday destroyed a guesthouse and killed 15 people, while nearly 4,000 residents were evacuated after a dam breach elsewhere in the province.