China and Japan experience record-breaking summer temratures

Swaths of China logged the hottest August on record last month, the weather service said, as Japanese authorities announced that this summer had been the joint warmest since records began.

China is the leading emitter of the greenhouse gas emissions scientists say are driving global climate change.

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

Its weather service said in an article published 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.

"Looking back at the past month, most parts of China have experienced a hotter summer than in previous years," the weather service said.

The major population centers of Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Chongqing also saw more "high-temperature days" -- typically declared when the mercury breaches 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) -- than in any August since records began.

Although the heat is expected to recede across much of the north as autumn begins, "it is still too early to end completely", the weather service said.

Climate scientists have already predicted that 2024 will be the hottest year on record for the Earth because of a warming planet.

The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said July was the second warmest on record books going back to 1940, only slightly cooler than July 2023.

Extreme heat has seared much of East Asia this summer, with Japan saying on Monday 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.

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

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

July 2024 was "the hottest July since complete observations began in 1961, and the hottest single month in the history of observation", state broadcaster CCTV said, citing weather authorities.

The average air temperature in China that month was 23.21C (73.78F), exceeding the previous record of 23.17C in 2017, CCTV reported the weather authorities as saying.