East China swelters under heatwave

CROPS AND INDUSTRY THREATENED AS SCORCHING TEMPERATURES ARRIVE EARLY

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Sweltering heat enveloped China's eastern seaboard on Friday, as a high-pressure system settled over the country's most populous region, baking key agricultural and manufacturing hubs along the Yangtze River and raising fears of droughts and economic losses.

Large swathes of China's economic heartland are set to roast in temperatures of 37-39C (99-102F) over the coming week.

Forecasters are warning that parts of Anhui and Zhejiang provinces, as well as the more central provinces of Hubei and Henan, could top 40C.

The subtropical high causing the heat has arrived unusually early this year.

China's “Sanfu Season” — an agricultural marker thought to have been in use for more than two millennia — typically begins in mid-July and lasts through late August, sending people sheltering from intense summer heat.

“It’s getting hot earlier and earlier now,” said Tao Sijia, a 30-year-old Shanghai resident. “I prefer the cooler weather in my childhood. The summers in my memory were cool. Now, it's pretty hot.”