Residents in Hefei, East China's Anhui Province gather at a lake to escape the summer heat on Wednesday. China's weather bureau has issued an orange alert for high temperatures expected to top 41 C in some regions. Photo: IC

China's weather bureau issued an orange alert for high temperatures expected to top 41 C in some southern regions on Wednesday. At least 19 people have reportedly died of heatstroke in the heat wave that has affected 700 million since July 20.

On Wednesday evening, China's National Meteorological Center (NMC) extended a high temperature orange alert, the second-highest warning in the system, through Thursday. Some regions - including Shanghai, Chongqing and Central China's Hubei Province - independently issued a red alert on Wednesday, chinanews.com reported.

Temperatures of 35-39 C are expected in areas along the southern reaches of the Yangtze, Yellow and Huaihe rivers in eastern Sichuan Province, Chongqing and Guizhou Province in Southwest China, in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, according to the NMC.

As of Wednesday, eight people in East China's Jiangsu Province, four in East China's Anhui Province and one in Shanghai had died of heatstroke, chinanews.com reported. News portal dzwww.com reported that the heat wave had also killed six in Shandong Province. 

Wang Junyu, a doctor at Beijing Chaoyang Hospital told chinanews.com that the severe heatstroke that caused the deaths is more likely to occur amid high temperatures, high humidity and windless conditions.

There have also been 120 cases of heatstroke reported in East China's Jiangsu Province, with 20 people in serious condition as of Monday. A total of 70 heatstroke cases occurred in Nanjing, Jiangsu's capital city.

China has been sweltering under the heat wave since July 20, and the high temperatures are expected to last until mid-August, the Yangtze Evening Post reported.

The heat wave is caused by a subtropical high pressure system, NMC forecaster Ma Xuekuan was quoted as saying by chinanews.com.

Electric power demand soared in many regions due to the continuing heat wave, and Shandong has restricted the electricity usage of some industries with high energy consumption after power demand hit record highs from Saturday to Monday, chinanews.com reported.

Global Times