The Chinese capital raises its hot weather warning level to the highest level

Beijing on Friday raised its hot weather alert to “red,” the highest level in a color system for weather warnings, with temperatures in many parts of the Chinese capital reaching 40 degrees Celsius.

The Beijing Meteorological Administration said the capital’s official temperature, measured from the Southern Suburbs Observatory, was 40 degrees Celsius after 1:30 p.m. local time (0530 GMT) on Friday.

“It is the first time since the establishment of the observatory that the temperature has risen to more than 40 degrees Celsius for two consecutive days,” Zhang Yingxin, chief meteorologist of the capital region, told a news briefing. The observatory was established in 1951.

On Thursday, the maximum temperature in the city of nearly 22 million people exceeded 41 degrees Celsius, breaking the record for the hottest day in June.

A meteorological station in the southern suburbs of Beijing recorded 41.1 degrees Celsius in the afternoon. The previous highest was on June 10, 1961, when it was 40.6 degrees Celsius.

Thursday’s daily maximum is the second-highest in the city’s history and came just below the 41.9 degrees Celsius recorded in Beijing on July 24, 1999.

China has a four-level weather warning system in which red is the most severe, followed by orange, yellow and blue. A red warning indicates that the temperature will rise above 40 degrees Celsius within 24 hours.

The China Meteorological Administration said on Thursday that it expected high temperatures to continue in most parts of the north of the country during the next eight to 10 days.