A security guard wearing an electric fan on his neck wipes his sweat on a hot day in Beijing, China, on July 3, 2023. Millions of people have been displaced by severe weather conditions as the capital had a brief respite from sweltering heat. Beijing reported 9.8 straight days when the temperature reached 35 C 95 F., the National Climate Center said Monday. Employers in Beijing were ordered to stop outdoor work Thursday after scorching summer heat in the city was forecast to reach 40 degrees centigrade 104 Fahrenheit. Government departments were ordered to provide security for the elderly and ill after the city of 22 million people issued a red alert, the highest level of a warning system for extreme temperatures.
The government on Monday reported that Beijing recorded 10 days of temperatures above 35 C 95 F, the longest streak of its kind since 1961.
Relevant departments and units shall take emergency measures for heatstroke prevention and cooling, a city government notice said. It urged employers to stop outdoor operations. The same floods have caused hundreds of people to flee their homes in southern China.
The government issued an emergency warning for possible flash flooding in Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang in the northeast, and Tibet and Sichuan in the southwest.