Many Chinese cities are struggling with scorching temperatures that are able to melt the roofs of buildings and to buckle roads. The intense heat wave drove some people to seek refuge from the inferno in underground air-raid shelters.

On Tuesday 68 cities including Shanghai had issued red alerts, the highest in a three-tier heatwave warning system, forecasting temperatures in excess of 40 degrees Celsius over the next 24 hours.

Since record-keeping began in 1873, Shanghai had only 15 days with temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius.

ALMOST ALL CHINA UNDER EXTREME HEAT, SHANGHAI RECORD#heatwave #climatechangehttps://t.co/lC4jsqxVL5 pic.twitter.com/mrUJpsgO6i

— Peter D Carter (@PCarterClimate) July 11, 2022

At a Shanghai wildlife park, staffers had to go through eight tonnes of ice a day just to keep their animals cool.

Earlier on July 5 Fang Xiang, deputy head of the Chinese National Meteorological Center said that for four to six days, the regions of Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Ningxia, and the provinces of Hebei, Henan, Gansu and Shaanxi, will see temperatures of more than 40 degrees Celcius in the next two weeks.

Inferno in Europe

Meanwhile, in Spain, summer sunshine combined with a hot air front from North Africa sent temperatures to a 43 degrees Celcius high on Sunday. The state meteorological forecasters, AEMET, stated that the heatwave could last until July 14.

People in Spain stayed in the shade in parks, headed for the beach or sipped iced drinks as the country experienced its second heatwave this year pic.twitter.com/Sn1htEMjqN

— Reuters (@Reuters) July 11, 2022

On Monday residents and tourists in London were also affected by high temperatures as temperatures reached 33 degrees Celsius.

In late June, the inferno also set upon the Italian capital where temperatures reached 40 degrees Celsius with people queuing at the capital’s many fountains trying to cool off.