Many parts of China and Japan have seen record summer temperatures

Beijing – Much of China saw its warmest August on record last month, the Meteorological Service said, while Japanese officials said 2024 would be the warmest summer on record.

China is a major emitter of greenhouse gases, which scientists say are causing global climate change.

Beijing has pledged to cut global-warming carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and to achieve net zero emissions by 2060.

The weather service said in a paper published on Sunday that average air temperatures last month in eight provinces, regions and cities “were the highest in the same period” since records began.

The affected areas included the metropolis of Shanghai, the provinces of Jiangsu, Hebei, Hainan, Jilin, Liaoning and Shandong, as well as the northwestern region of Xinjiang, the meteorological service said.

In another five provinces, August was the second warmest month, and in seven more, August was the third hottest.

“Looking back over the past month, most regions in China experienced a warmer summer than in previous years,” the weather service said.

Major urban centres such as Shanghai, Hangzhou and Chongqing also saw more “high temperature days” (usually declared when temperatures exceed 35 degrees Celsius) than in any August since records began.

While the heatwave is expected to ease across much of the north as autumn approaches, “it is still too early for it to end completely,” the weather service said.

Climatologists are already predicting that 2024 will be the warmest year in Earth’s history due to the planet’s warming.

According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), July was the second warmest month on record since 1940 and only slightly colder than July 2023.

Extreme heat has gripped much of East Asia this summer, with neighboring Japan reporting Monday that its average temperature from June to August was 1.76 degrees Celsius above the standard value, the highest since records began in 1898.

Rising global temperatures are also making extreme weather more frequent and intense. China has seen extreme weather this summer, from heatwaves across much of the north and west to devastating floods in central and southern regions.

China’s weather bureau said July was the country’s warmest month on record since records began, state media reported, with extreme temperatures continuing in many parts of the globe.

State broadcaster CCTV reported, citing the meteorological service, that last month was “the hottest July since full records began in 1961 and the warmest single month on record.”

China’s average air temperature last month was 23.21 degrees Celsius, surpassing the previous record of 23.17 degrees Celsius set in 2017, CCTV reported, citing the meteorological service.