Shanghai swelters in early heat

By Anders Lorenzen

As in many other places in the world right now, China is experiencing early and extremely hot weather.

In Shanghai, China’s largest city and a key financial hub, Monday (29th of May) last week experienced its warmest May day in 100 years, shattering the previous high by a full degree. 

At Xujiahui metro station in the centre of the city, the temperature reached 36.1 degrees C, breaking a 100-year-old record for the highest temperature in May. That puts it a full degree above the previous record, 35.7C, which has been recorded four times previously, in 1876, 1903, 1915 and 2018, according to the weather service.

Records set across Asia

There’s scientific consensus that climate change is exacerbating extreme weather events. Many countries experience deadly heatwaves and temperatures hitting records across Southeast and South Asia in recent weeks.

In a recent report by the UN climate change body, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), scientists warned that ‘every increment of climate change will intensify multiple and concurrent hazards’. 

Earlier this month, the UN warned that it is near-certain that 2023-2027 will be the warmest five-year period ever recorded, as greenhouse gasses and El Nino combine to send temperatures soaring. 

Another UN body, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), added there is a two-thirds chance that at least one of the next five years will see global temperatures exceed the more ambitious target set out in the Paris Agreement, signed by world leaders in 2015 of 1.5 Degrees C. 

Several other Chinese cities also broke heat records on Monday.