Weather authority issues red heat alert

Shanghai's weather bureau issued the first red heat alert of the year Thursday as the city continued to broil.

The Shanghai Meteorological Bureau upgraded the high temperature alert from orange to red at 1:18 pm, according to its website.

The bureau has a three-tiered alert system for high temperatures. It issues a red alert whenever the high temperature is expected to surpass 40 C over the following 24 hours.

The weather bureau has only issued a red alert once before, on July 20, 2009, when the high temperature hit 40 C.

The bureau has issued heat alerts on 21 days this year, including 19 in the first 25 days of July, according to the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau.

The hottest summer on record was in 1934, when the high temperature surpassed 35 C on 55 days, including 23 in July alone. It was also the hottest July on record.

The temperature peaked Thursday at 39.2 C, the highest so far this year, according to the bureau.

Weather bureau forecasters predicted that the high temperature will be 39 C Friday and 38 C Saturday.