A temperature record for mid-July was broken in China in the Xinjiang region (west) with 52.2°C recorded on Sunday, according to national meteorology, when part of the country suffered a heat wave. Xinjiang, a vast semi-desert territory bordering several Central Asian countries, is usually the hottest region in China in summer.
“At 7 p.m. on Sunday, the maximum temperature recorded by the meteorological station in the village of Sanbao, (…) which depends on the city of Turpan, was 52.2°C,” the Chinese meteorological service said on Monday. The previous record for this station dates back to July 2017 when the mercury reached 50.6°C, they said. “I have never seen such a temperature recorded by a regional weather station,” commented on his Weibo account (the Chinese equivalent of Twitter) a national meteorology analyst, Xin Xin.
80 degrees on the ground
The oasis town of Turpan (also written Turfan) is located at the gates of the Taklamakan desert and more than 2,200 km from Beijing. The ground temperature there reached locally 80 degrees on Sunday, according to the Chinese weather services. Midsummer heat waves are not unusual in China. But the Asian giant has been facing extreme weather conditions in recent months, exacerbated by climate change, according to scientists.
In January, a cold record was broken in China at Mohe, on the border with Russia (-53°C). Last year, China experienced its hottest August since records began in 1961, after weeks of an unprecedented heat wave.