Northern China on red alert as record temperatures bake Beijing

The service recorded 41 degrees at nearly half of the 556 monitoring sites across the city, with the highest reading at 41.1 degrees on Thursday, breaking a record 40.6 degrees set in 1961.

Red alerts have also been issued in neighbouring Hebei province, where temperatures were forecast to hover from 37 to 39 degrees across most of the province. However, major cities like Shijiazhuang, Xiongan New Area and Xingtai could see high temperatures of 42 degrees.

Service meteorologist Lei Lei said the heatwave was caused by a warm air mass that formed under a ridge of high pressure. Northern China’s generally clear and dry conditions have exacerbated radiation warming, according to China News Service.

The heat was forecast to continue until Monday, when rain is expected to cool the region. Still, forecasters said temperature would remain in a range of 34-36 degrees.

Further relief might not come until July when the air becomes more humid, and extremely high temperatures are less frequent.

Nearly 6 million people in Beijing planned to travel during the three-day Dragon Boat Festival holiday, according to the China Railway Beijing Bureau. Hundreds of thousands of tourists streamed into popular tourist attractions, such as the Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven, on Thursday.