Children jump into a pool in Caceres, Spain, July 14, 2022. Eighty-four people are known to have died from the heat wave that has struck Spain since July 10, the Carlos III Health Institute, which reports to the Spanish Ministry of Health, said on Friday. Photo:Xinhua

China's top meteorological authority has issued the high-temperature warning for 12 days as blistering heat waves continued to smother regions across China since June 13 and will last until at least mid-August.

The National Meteorological Center of the China Meteorological Administration said on Sunday that heat waves of over 40 C would strike regions including the southeastern part of Northwest China's Shaanxi and the northeastern part of East China's Zhejiang.

According to the meteorological authority, the temperature surpassed 37 C in Turpan city of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region which is known as the hottest and driest region in China, the southeastern parts, as well as parts of Shanghai, East China's Fujian, Central China's Henan and Hunan, and Southwest China's Chongqing.

Despite China just entering its hottest summer period known as Sanfu on Saturday, which is calculated according to the Chinese traditional calendar and typically lasts for 30 to 40 days accompanied by high-temperatures and heavy rains, many cities have been hit by the extreme hit since mid June.

The financial hub Shanghai witnessed the record-high temperature of 40.9 C on Wednesday, a figure not eclipsed since 1973. Hangzhou in East China's Zhejiang issued 54 red warnings of extreme heat on Tuesday, breaking the number of local heat warnings issued on a single day. In total, 71 national weather stations across China have broken records with the highest temperature recorded reaching 44.2 C at Lingshou, North China's Hebei Province.

According to the National Meteorological Center, hot weather will endure in the south and south east parts of China until July 26 and China's most regions will face a higher temperature than the previous years from July 31 to August 15.

China is not alone in suffering from the continuous extreme heat, with extreme temperatures also engulfing a number of European countries including the UK, Portugal, Spain, Italy and France. 

The UK has issued its first ever "red" warning for exceptional heat, urging citizens in London to reduce travel on Monday and Tuesday as the temperature is expected to surpass a record-high of 41 C.

Several thousand people will have to be evacuated because of wildfires in Spain and southwestern France due to high temperature and drought. At least 360 people in Spain have died from the hot weather when the temperature has surpassed 45.7 C for several days. Portugal experienced a national high of 47 C last week as the country has reported 238 deaths due to the heat from July 7 to 13.

The continuous hot wave in China connect with the global extreme heat which resulted from the climate change, Wang Gengchen, a research fellow at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told the Global Times. 

Wang said that under the effect of global warming, there will be a general tendency that extreme weather events like heat and flood will increase. 

"But it doesn't means that there will be more extreme weather events in next year and much more in the year after the next years," he said.