Shanghai Records Hottest May Day in 100 Years, Highlighting Global Warming Impact

(CTN News) – On Monday, the meteorological service in Shanghai stated that the city had experienced its warmest May day in 100 years, breaking the previous high by one full degree.

According to scientists, extreme weather is becoming more common due to global warming, who point to the recent record-breaking heat in Southeast and South Asia as evidence.

Earlier today, a metro station in the heart of China’s largest metropolis exceeded 36.1 degrees Celsius (97 degrees Fahrenheit), shattering a record that had stood for 100 years. This was announced in a post on the service’s official Weibo account.

Shanghai’s Temperature Hits Record-Breaking 36.1°C (97°F)

Later in the afternoon, the temperature at the busy station reached 36.7C (98F), according to Shanghai’s meteorological department.

The previous record temperature of 35.7C had been set four times before, in 1876, 1903, 1915, and 2018 (according to the weather service).

 

The early afternoon sun in Shanghai was extremely uncomfortable for locals, with some apps estimating the “feels like” temperature to be higher than 40C (104F).

One post from Shanghai on Weibo stated, “I went out at noon to pick up a delivery and got a headache after coming back.”

Yet another commented, “I almost got heatstroke, it’s really hot enough to explode.”

In the middle of April, temperatures in India soared beyond 44C (111F), resulting in at least 11 deaths in Mumbai due to heat stroke.

It was the hottest day in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in nearly 60 years.

According to the World Weather Attribution research, the city of Tak in Thailand experienced its highest-ever temperature of 45.4C (114F), and the province of Sainyabuli in Laos experienced its highest-ever temperature of 42.9C (109F).

“every increment of global warming will intensify multiple and concurrent hazards,” the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported recently.

2023-2027 Predicted to Be Warmest Five-Year Period on Record, Says UN

The United Nations issued a warning in May predicting that the five years between 2023 and 2027 will be the warmest on record due to the combined effects of greenhouse gases and El Nino.

According to the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), there is a 66 percent likelihood that global temperatures would exceed the more aggressive objective set out in the Paris Accords on curbing climate change in at least one of the following five years.

To keep global warming to “well below” two degrees Celsius over average levels estimated between 1850 and 1900, countries signed the Paris Agreement in 2015. If at all feasible, they aimed for 1.5 degrees C.

The average temperature over the world in 2022 was 1.15 degrees Celsius, higher than it had been between 1850 and 1900.

According to the WMO, between 2023 and 2027, annual global surface temperatures are likely to rise to at least 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels in at least one year.