Heat wave expected to break in mid-August(2)

An egg is displayed after it hatched in high temperatures in Zhengzhou, Henan province, on Aug 1.Provided to China Daily

Children compete to eat watermelons to welcome autumn, which began on Wednesday this year by the Chinese lunar calendar.Meng Delong / for China Daily

Some companies in Zhejiang province have allowed employees to set their own work schedules because of the extreme heat.

According to media reports, even mosquitoes are finding the heat in South China intolerable. The Chongqing disease control department said there are half as many mosquitoes in the city as in previous years.

Ground temperatures in some parts of southern China reached 70 C on Tuesday, according to the National Meteorological Center, and 1,030 of the 2,000 monitoring stations across the country observed record-high temperatures on Tuesday.

Making matters worse, Tropical Storm Mangkhut is fast approaching. On Wednesday and Thursday, rainstorms will lash Hainan province and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

The meteorological center issued a blue alert on Wednesday with warnings of a typhoon. It estimated that Mangkhut may pass south of Hainan and make landfall in northern Vietnam on Thursday morning,

Mangkhut, the 10th tropical storm to hit China this year, was 120 kilometers from Sanya, Hainan province, packing winds of up to 72 km per hour at its eye on Wednesday morning.

Li Weijing, a climatologist, said that extreme weather events such as severe droughts and floods are becoming more frequent because of global warming.

"Global warming is causing Arctic ice to melt and strengthening Pacific subtropical highs," Li said, adding that these factors influenced temperatures in China this summer.

Global warming will cause China's rain belt to increasingly move north in summer seasons, Li said, leaving southern regions with scorching heat.

"Extreme droughts and floods are challenging human safety. Authorities need to pay attention to this with urban planning," he added.

Li said the China Meteorological Administration is studying long-term climate predictions to help the country deal with extreme weather events.