China logs hottest August in more than six decades

China logged its hottest August in more than six decades last month, its national weather service said, after the country endured a summer of extreme weather and heatwaves across much of its north and west.

China is the leading emitter of the greenhouse gas emissions scientists say are driving global climate change and making extreme weather events more frequent.

Beijing has pledged to bring planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions to a peak by 2030 and to net zero by 2060.

And on Thursday, the China Meteorological Administration said in a statement that: “China experienced prolonged and extreme high temperatures” in August.

“The national average temperature was the highest for the same period since 1961,” it added.

The national average temperature in August was 22.6 degrees Celsius (72.68 degrees Fahrenheit) — 1.5C higher than the same period in a typical year, Jia Xiaolong, deputy director of the National Climate Center, was quoted as saying.

“Northern regions experienced frequent and highly destructive rainstorms, while large-scale heatwaves persisted in the southern regions,” Jia said.

“Nineteen national weather stations recorded daily maximum temperatures that either matched or exceeded historical records,” he said.

The record breaking figures followed another report from the weather service on Sunday that average air temperatures last month in eight provinces, regions and cities “ranked the hottest for the same period” since records began.

They included the megacity of Shanghai, the provinces of Jiangsu, Hebei, Hainan, Jilin, Liaoning and Shandong as well as the northwest region of Xinjiang, the weather service said.

A further five provinces chalked up their second-hottest August, while seven more endured their third-hottest.

Chinese weather authorities had also said July was the country’s hottest month since records began, state media reported, as extreme temperatures persist across large parts of the globe.

Extreme heat has seared much of East Asia this summer.

Japan also on Monday said that its long-term average temperature between June and August was 1.76C above the standard value — equalling the level seen in summer 2023 — the highest since statistics started being kept in 1898.