Guangzhou sees longest summer since 1961

GUANGZHOU, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- The city of Guangzhou in south China saw an average temperature of 23.3 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, bringing the number of the city's summer days to a record of 235 since 1961 when meteorological records began.

This breaks the previous record set in 1994, when 234 summer days were observed in Guangzhou, according to the city's meteorological bureau.

Based on relevant standards, Guangzhou entered summer on March 23 this year.

Ai Hui, a senior engineer at the city's climate and agricultural meteorological center, said that the primary reason for the extended summer this year was the weaker Siberian High from October to Nov. 11, which resulted in weaker and fewer cold air influences on Guangzhou.

The persistently strong Western Pacific subtropical high led to an average temperature of 24.9 degrees Celsius across the city, which is 1.2 degrees Celsius higher than the average for the same period, ranking the second-highest on record, said Ai.

Meteorologists said that against the backdrop of global warming, Guangzhou has shown a significant upward trend in temperatures, with summers extending longer. There is also a possibility that extreme weather cases may become more frequent and intense.

The year 2024 is on track to be the warmest year on record after an extended streak of exceptionally high monthly global mean temperatures, according to a report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released earlier this week during the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP29.

The January-September global mean surface air temperature was 1.54 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average, boosted by a warming El Nino event, according to an analysis of six international datasets used by WMO. ■