Southern China will be scorched for over 10 days starting Sunday, with some areas witnessing temperatures reaching 41 C, the National Meteorological Center (NMC) forecast Saturday.
The heat wave will bring continuous high temperatures to southern China, with maximum temperatures ranging from 35 C to 39 C in most areas, and some reaching 40 C to 41 C, news site cnr.cn reported.
"The heat wave is due to the impact of a subtropical high pressure system, which will remain stable," said Zhang Tao, chief forecaster with the NMC.
Starting this week, southern China will witness the most prolonged hot weather across the widest area of the year so far. And due to the high humidity, temperatures will feel even higher - over 45 C at most.
For example, Wednesday's maximum temperature in big cities like Shanghai, Changsha in Central China's Hunan Province, Hangzhou in East China's Zhejiang Province and Guangzhou in South China's Guangdong Province is expected to rise above 35 C, but it will feel almost 10 degrees hotter.
Meanwhile, sweltering weather also swept into broad swathes of central and southern parts of North China over the weekend. Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei Province, saw a record high of 37.5 C on Thursday. However, the heat in the north will dissipate somewhat this week due to an influx of cold air.
In past weeks, heavy rain caused flash floods, mudslides and landslides in South China's Hunan, Guizhou and Guangdong provinces and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
