Shanghai will continue to sweat through high temperatures exceeding 38 C over the rest of this week, the local weather bureau predicted Tuesday.

The Shanghai Meteorological Bureau issued its fourth red heat alert of the year Tuesday, according to its website. It issued an orange heat alert at 7:56 am and then upgraded it to a red alert at 10 am.

The temperature in Shanghai Tuesday matched an all-time record high of 40.6 C. The temperature will remain above 38 C for the rest of this week. Photo: Cai Xianmin/GT

 

The weather bureau has a three-tiered alert system for high temperatures. It issues a red alert whenever the high temperature is expected to surpass 40 C over the following 24 hours.

In the city center Tuesday, the mercury climbed to 40.6 C, matching the highest temperature ever recorded in the city, the bureau said.

The temperature has surpassed 35 C on 32 days so far this year.

Water and electricity consumption have repeatedly broken records this summer under the oppressive heat.

Daily water consumption hit a record high five times in July. The city consumed 6.79 million cubic meters of water on July 29, the most ever in a single day, according to a report in the Oriental Morning Post.

Electricity usage peaked at 28.61 million kilowatts on July 26, the sixth time that the daily record has been broken this year, the Shanghai Municipal Electric Power Co said on its microblog.

Local hospitals have also been dealing with an unusually high number of patients due to an increase in heat-related illnesses.

Huashan Hospital receives 12,000 patients on average each day, the report said. Many patients have been going in with a skin allergy caused by too much exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays.

The dermatology department, the hospital's busiest department, has been seeing about 5,000 patients on average every day recently, about 25 percent more than usual, the report said. Each doctor in the department has to see at least 100 patients each day.

The weather bureau predicted the high temperature will be 39 C from Wednesday to Friday and 38 C this weekend.

The subtropical high pressure system that has kept temperatures high this summer will weaken next week, which should provide some relief from the heat, said Fu Yi, a press officer from the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau.