Singapore, June 22: Beijing has recorded its hottest June day in more than 60 years with the mercury touching 41.1 degrees Celsius, a media outlet reported, quoting Chinese weather authorities. On Thursday, officials said it was the hottest June day since record keeping began in 1961, BBC reported.

The city is experiencing a prolonged heatwave with extreme temperatures to persist until the end of June. Several monthly heat records have been broken around China this year, prompting fears of an energy crunch. Last month, the country's largest city Shanghai, with 25 million people living on the east coast, recorded its hottest May day in a century. More than 21 million people live in Beijing, the nation's capital in the north. China to Witness Drought-Like Situations in Coming Years: Study

On Thursday, a weather station in the city's north recorded a high of 41.8 degrees Celsius. Authorities earlier issued an orange alert, the second-most severe weather warning, saying that temperatures could reach 39 degrees Celsius in the days to Saturday. The national weather bureau also issued a heat stroke alert last week - a fortnight earlier than in previous years, BBC reported. China Swelters Under Severe Heat Waves, over 900 Million People Affected.

Local authorities in Beijing, Tianjin, and other cities in northern and eastern China, advised people to suspend outdoor work during the hottest parts of the day and to get medical help if they show symptoms of a heat stroke. Some have also warned people and businesses to curb their electricity usage. Last week, the National Energy Administration staged its first-ever emergency drill in China's eastern region, simulating a power surge and outage in the face of any large-scale power outages.

The situation was "relatively severe" in regards to power grid security, the agency said, BBC reported.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 22, 2023 06:30 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).