China’s National Climate Center said that in the last decade, almost all regions of the country have seen a growing number of days recording heatwaves, and the forecast is that they will continue. To face the high temperatures, since 2002, the Asian country has adopted measures to strengthen the connection between meteorological warnings and emergency response.
Last year, over 30,000 alerts of high temperatures were issued, most in July. More than 2,100 warnings were “red” – the most serious alert – which means that temperatures of 40C or more will occur in areas of four or more provinces within a 48-hour period.
Liu Yanju, a researcher at the Chinese National Climate Center, told Brasil de Fato that according to their climate change monitoring, the national average temperature continues to show an upward trend. She says the frequency and intensity of extremely high temperatures have increased.
“This means that extreme events will be stronger and more frequent, and the area hit will be larger,” she said.
For the remaining weeks of the Chinese summer (which, depending on the region of the country, runs from the end of August to September), the temperature in most regions of China is expected to be predominantly above-average, “with intermittent higher temperatures and heatwaves expected in Xinjiang, northern China, southern China and the northern and southern parts of the eastern portion of the country,” explains Liu Yanju.
“This will seriously affect people's lives and production, physical health, traffic safety, outdoor activities, etc.,” she concluded.
China's National Early Warning System is a mechanism that covers national, provincial, municipal and district units. They can all use the system to send warnings.
“That’s very useful information for them to judge the level and state of risks at that moment, helping them to define whether they should provide assistance to the public or make decisions about other types of tasks,” Cao Zhiyu, head of the Early Warning Service, which belongs to the Public Meteorological Services Center, explained to Brasil de Fato.
“In this system, once an alert has been issued, it can be sent by various means of communication, including television, radio, the internet, short message services, as well as social media platforms. If the warning level is very high (such as a red alert for high temperature), it can be spread to the entire public via SMS,” explains Zhiyu.
One os the 116 new cooling areas of the city of Linhai, Zhejiang province, for workers and residents. It has air conditioning, fridges, drinking fountains and watermelons / CGTN
Public and private companies also use alerts to implement precautionary measures. Zhang Zhibin, deputy manager of a COFCO wheat processing plant in the city of Dezhou lists some of the company's actions during the heatwave recorded last month.
“We controlled the duration of outdoor work and avoided working in high temperatures at midday. We also set up tea [and water] drinking areas and toilets on the construction site,” he explains.
Xinzheng International Airport, in Henan province, has increased the frequency of shift changes for maintenance technicians. In Caoxian County, Shandong Province, the local authorities have increased the duration of breaks and ordered work to be stopped during periods of intense heat.
Edited by: Rodrigo Durão Coelho
