Chinese cities see temperatures hit record high for early March
MORE than a dozen major Chinese cities have seen temperatures hit record seasonal highs this week, with central China’s Wuhan and Zhengzhou at more than 10 degrees Celsius (18F) higher than normal for early March, official data showed.
Wuhan, located on the middle reaches of the Yangtze river, registered temperatures of 26 degrees Celsius on Monday, 12 degrees higher than the long-term early March average, while Beijing and surrounding cities also saw temperatures reach 22-25 degrees Celsius earlier this week.
China experienced months of extreme heat last year, with 267 weather stations measuring record-breaking temperatures in excess of 40 degrees during a 70-day summer drought that hit the entire Yangtze river basin, triggering fires and damaging crops.
The country’s weather bureau has already warned that it was facing another year of extreme weather in 2023 as a result of global climate change.
The southwestern province of Yunnan, a major hydropower base, is already in the middle of a prolonged drought forecast to last into April, with average rainfall more than 60 per cent lower than usual since November last year.
The Poyang, China’s biggest freshwater lake and a major flood outlet for the Yangtze, has also failed to recover from last year’s drought, with water levels on Monday falling again below 7 metres, close to a record low, according to state media.
Chinese weather officials said at a routine monthly press briefing last week that average temperatures for the whole of February were 1.6 degrees Celsius higher than normal, with average rainfall also 3.9 per cent lower than the average.
Russian troops first attempted to recapture Bakhmut in early August but were pushed back.
The fighting abated in the following months as the Russian military faced Ukrainian counteroffensives in the east and the south, but it resumed at full pace late last year. In January, the Russians captured the salt-mining town of Soledar just a few kilometres north of Bakhmut and advanced to the city’s suburbs.
The relentless Russian bombardment has reduced Bakhmut to a smoldering wasteland with few buildings still standing. Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have fought ferocious house-tohouse battles in the ruins.