Climate extremes become increasingly fierce in China

Abstract

Heatwaves wreaked havoc across the Northern Hemisphere in summer 2022 and resulted in at least 15,000 deaths in Europe. Eastern China also experienced an unprecedentedly hot and dry summer. The maximum 2-m air temperature (Tmax) at around 300 national meteorological stations broke the historical record, and high temperature warnings sounded for 41 consecutive days. As a consequence, a devastating chain of disasters took shape. With Tmax >40°C, more than 270 million people suffered from heat stress, and there were hundreds of casualties reported due to thermoplegia.

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