China has hottest July since 1961, Japan hits all-time highs – Observer

China’s average temperature in July was the highest recorded for that month since 1961, the Asian country’s Meteorological Center said on Friday.

During the seventh month of the year, the average temperature in the country reached 23.2 degrees Celsius1.1 higher than the temperature in years considered normal, said the institution’s deputy director, Jia Xialong, quoted by the official newspaper China Daily.

“In July, China faced a combination of extreme rainfall and extremely high temperatures across the country”Jia said at an event in Beijing.

Southern China has suffered a widespread and prolonged heatwave, with several regions recording continuous high temperatures for more than 20 days.

A total of 59 national weather stations recorded daily maximum temperatures that broke or equaled all-time records.

Last month, heat records were broken around the worldwith July 22 being the hottest day on record on Earth, with a global average daily temperature of 17.15°C.

The sudden increase in average daily temperatures between July 21 and 22 was mainly due to significantly higher than normal temperatures in the northern hemisphere, particularly in North America and Europe, as well as in most of Antarctica, the expert explained.

According to the Center’s forecast, temperatures in most parts of China will continue to be higher than usual in August: two significant heat waves are expected in the first half of August, with high temperatures expected to ease towards the end of the month.

In July, heavy rainfall killed more than 30 people and displaced hundreds of thousands in central China.

In recent summers, extreme weather events have wreaked havoc in the Asian country: the summer months of 2023 were marked by the aforementioned floods in Beijing, while in 2022, several extreme heat waves and droughts hit central and eastern China.

In July 2021, the Chinese government accused local authorities of “lack of preparedness and risk perception”, which led to the deaths of nearly 400 people in the central province of Henan.

Japan, meanwhile, recorded its highest average daily temperatures for July on record due to a heatwave from the Pacific, the Japanese meteorological agency said.

The average daily temperature in July across the Japanese archipelago was 26.22 degrees Celsius. (ºC), an increase of 2.16ºC compared to the average for that month between 1991 and 2020.

This is the highest average temperature observed in July since the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) began collecting such data in 1898, and a record for the same month for the second year in a row.

The thermometer exceeded 40ºC in seven locations in the country on several days last month, according to the JMA, also referring to the registration of 3,509 cases of “extreme heat” or measurements above 35°C, so far, in almost a thousand meteorological observation points in the country.

The agency stressed that this year, the Japanese archipelago was affected by a hot air system in the Pacific, in the context of global warming, which resulted in higher than usual temperatures during the month of July.

“As with last year, a number of factors combined to produce record temperatures and we expect this heat to continue through August and beyond,” JMA meteorologist Masayuki Hirai told a news conference.

From Friday, much of western, central and northern Japan is under high temperature warning, with temperatures expected to rise above 38°C and even 39°C in parts of the Kyoto, Osaka and Yamaguchi regions.