National Climate Center throws cold water on hottest Chinese cities list

The National Climate Center ( NCC) has denied releasing a list ranking the hottest cities in China, saying that a list which went viral could have been based on a different list from five years ago, the Guangzhou Daily reported Thursday.

A list which claims to show the official ranking of the hottest cities in China has gone viral on Wechat. According to the list, Chongqing; Fuzhou, East China’s Fujian Province; Hangzhou, East China’s Zhejiang Province; and Nanchang in East China’s Jiangxi Province, are the hottest urban areas in China.

The list – which claims to be both recent and supplied by the NCC – has become a hot topic among Wechat users as a heat wave bakes China, affecting 3.2 million square kilometers, about one- third of the country’s land area, the Guangzhou Daily report said.

The NCC has denied releasing such a list, but revealed it is working on an indicator system to assess how the climate affects the livability of cities across China.

Back in 2012 the center released a list of the top ten hottest provincial capitals or municipalities in China based on temperatures from 1981 to 2011. The list is identical to the viral list, the Guangzhou Daily reported.

The NCC has issued an orange alert this week ( the sec- ond highest level) as temperatures in many parts of China are set to rocket as high as 40 C, China Central Television News reported.