Shanghai cooled down a little yesterday but the temperature recorded at the benchmark Xujiahui observatory was still over 40 degrees Celsius.
The 40.2 reading came at 2:30pm after the city had issued its third consecutive high temperature alert. It was the seventh high temperature day this month and the 34th this summer.
The hottest area in Shanghai was near Xinchang Town in southwest Pudong, where temperatures hit 42.2 degrees at 1:15pm.
The city has never seen three straight days with highs topping 40 degrees since 1873, according to the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau. That was when the Xujiahui observatory began recording temperatures.
Another 40 degree high is expected today but showers and thunderstorms may appear in parts of the city tomorrow, bringing temperatures into the 38 to 39 range.
Needy families in the city are to receive a 200 yuan (US$32.25) subsidy due to the heat, civil affairs authorities said yesterday.
The city government has earmarked 43 million yuan for the payments.
The Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau also said the number of visits to needy families and seniors who lived alone had been increased to ensure their safety.
On Monday, an 84-year-old man was found dead at his apartment on Xincun Road in Putuo District. He had been dead for five days.
Last Saturday, a 69-year-old man was found dead at his apartment in Huangpu District by staff of the neighborhood residential committee. A woman in her 60s was found dead the same day at her apartment in Yangpu District.
Although not China’s hottest city by day, at night Shanghai tops a list released by the Weather China website, which notes that the city has seven nights with temperatures over 30 degrees this year.
Despite the heat, the work of the city’s police officers goes on as normal.
Shanghai Daily visited downtown Caojiadu Police Station in Jing’an District yesterday.
The 56 officers at the station are responsible for a 1.6-square-kilometer area.
Jiang Hui, a chief officer, said officers are on patrol in three shifts — 6:30am-3pm, 3pm-10:30pm and 10:30pm-6am — with three half-an-hour breaks in each shift.
“We receive about 15 calls on average in the first and second shift. Fewer calls are received in the third, usually about seven to eight,” Jiang said. “Nine policemen patrol the area in a shift, while one is monitoring surveillance videos.”
One of the calls received yesterday was from an expat who had left his suitcase in a taxi at about 1:30pm.
It was the hottest time of the day, with temperatures already over 40 degrees but the police sprang into action and the expat and his case were soon reunited.
Meanwhile, a Shanghai Power Electric Co Ltd plan to limit the power use of some factories in parts of the city if electricity use exceeded Wednesday’s 29,400-megawatt record, the highest in three years, was not put into action after power use stayed at 29,200 megawatts.
