China’s heatwave has now lasted 64 days, making it the longest since full records began in 1961, state media said on Wednesday, citing data from the National Climate Center.
On Wednesday, central China’s Hubei province became the latest to announce an extensive weather modification program, deploying planes to fire silver iodide rods into the clouds to induce rainfall.
Areas across central and northern China ordered emergency measures to ensure drinking water supplies after summer rain was as little as half normal levels. The official Xinhua News Agency said firetrucks carried water to two dry villages near Chongqing in the southwest.
Hundreds of thousands of acres of crops across central and northern China have wilted due to lack of water and high temperatures, according to the government. Some areas have reported the summer growing season a failure.
The weather agency has warned temperatures in some areas could spike to 104 Fahrenheit.
In Sichuan, which has 94 million people, water levels at hydropower reservoirs are down by as much as half this month, according to the Sichuan Provincial Department of Economics and Information Technology.
The government has allocated 280 million yuan ($41 million) for drought relief in Hebei and Shanxi provinces and the Inner Mongolia region in the north and Liaoning province in the northeast, according to Xinhua.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
