ANKARA – China has been experiencing the hottest days in six decades, with temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in recent days, local media reported.

The National Climate Center (NCC) in a statement on Sunday said the country has recorded the highest number of hot days in the past six decades and that the occurrence of multiple heatwaves engulfing the country’s northern cities is extremely rare, local English daily Global Times reported.

From June 21 to June 22, a total of 450,000 square kilometers (173,745 square miles) of land experienced temperatures exceeding 37C in recent days. Beijing recorded consecutive days of temperatures over 40C in June, said the NCC.

Beijing has been the most severely affected, followed by the neighboring Hebei Province and Tianjin Municipality, it added.

More than 200 million people have been affected in the northern part of the country by the soaring temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius on some days.

The scorching heat in North China, according to the NCC, is “very” rare which will keep engulfing some parts of North and Southwest China, with temperatures 1C to 2C higher than previous years.

Cou Bing, the head of the China Meteorological Administration, said the extreme heat is associated with the El Nino weather events, and therefore there is an increase in precipitation in the south of the country in summer and drought in the north.

The term El Nino refers to a warming of the ocean surface, or above-average sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.

Temperatures are expected to rise further in the north of the country, the weather agency warned.

Floods displace thousands in southwest China

Some 10,000 people were displaced due to the floods in southwestern China, the worst in the last 50 years.

The displaced people have been moved to safer places due to flooding in the central province of Hunan, the Xiang’xi Emergency Management Bureau said on Sunday.

Around 70 houses collapsed, 2,283 were damaged and farm fields were flooded. Losses so far have been estimated at 575 million yuan (USD79 million).

No death from the floods has been reported. (Anadolu)