Summer's set to heat up further

By Lu Feiran  |   2008-6-30  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

SHANGHAI will have a hot week, with rain or thunderstorms in the afternoons, forecasters said yesterday.

As the subtropical high moves west, maximum temperatures will be 33 to 34 degrees Celsius, with lows of 23 to 24 degrees, the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau said.

Wednesday is expected to be rainy, with even heavier falls on Friday. The bureau said the plum rain season will not end for at least the next three to five days.

"We are closely watching the position and strength of the subtropical high, which is the key to the end of the plum rain season," said forecaster Zhu Jiadong.

The plum rain season normally starts on June 15 and ends on July 9. This year, it came a week early, on June 7.

Since keeping records began in 1873, the earliest plum rain season came on May 22, 1936, and the latest on July 9, 1982. The longest plum rain season ?? 59 days ?? was in 1954 and the shortest ?? just three days - in 1958 and 1965.

This year's plum rain season has so far produced about 40 percent more rain than normal, with 357 millimeters against the average of 244mm, said Zhu. "The crossing of the cold and hot air currents formed a stable, stationary front."