‘It was so hot my eggs became chicks!’
Print Edition
It was too hot, I bought a basket of eggs, and when I got home they were chickens!”
“I bought a summer sleeping mat, but it was as warm as an electric blanket.”
These were just two of the many jokes about the heat in Jiading posted online.
On August 6, the temperature in Jiading reached 40.3 degrees Celsius, the highest since the establishment of Jiading Meteorological Station in 1958.
Sunglasses, masks and even towels to cover heads seemed to be essential for outdoor activities this summer.
Fan Zengqiang and his girlfriend went out for a walk but were soon running toward the shade of a tree in Zhouqiao Old Street to stop and take a drink of water. “We came here for a short while and found we couldn’t stand the heat. Even if we stood still, the sweat still could not help dripping,” Fan said.
There were more than 30 days this summer with temperatures over 35 degrees.
“The first high temperature day over 35 degrees this year was on June 17, when the mercury reached 36.7 degrees,” Zhu Jiaqi from the Jiading Meteorological Bureau said.
“In July there were 24 days with the highest temperature over 35 degrees, and among them were 14 days with temperatures above 37 degrees. Both figures have broken the records,” Zhu said.
Explaining why there were so many hot days this summer, Zhu said: “Up till now, Shanghai only was influenced by the outer cloud systems of Typhoon Soulik slightly, and there is nearly no typhoon to influence the city directly.” In previous years, the subtropical high would retreat with the arrival of typhoons, so there were scarcely any continuous heat waves.
The ground temperature was much higher than the forecast. As tested, the temperature on the ground of the Jiading Meteorological Station was 65.5 degrees while the temperature in the thermometer screen was 38.4 degrees — a difference of 27.1 degrees.
The record-breaking heat wave resulted in more emergency cases for Jianding’s hospitals.
The Jiading District Central Hospital hospital received 12 patients with severe heatstroke on July 29 and 30 alone. Most cases were of elderly people unwilling to use air conditioning in order to save money.
Meanwhile, the continuous high temperature pushed up the number of emergency cases to as high as 6,500 on a single day.
It also made people lose their temper. A young couple was treated for cuts after they had quarreled over trivial matters and pulled knives on each other. Both got injured, but their tempers cooled down at the hospital.
It was not only humans who were affected by the heat. Animals seemed prone to attack.
Doctor Cui Rong of the district traditional Chinese medicine hospital receives an average of 40 patients a day suffering from dog bites, 20 percent more than usual.
“Animals outdoors will find places under shade, but pets indoors are more likely to lose their temper in a hot, stuffy environment with poor ventilation,” Cui said.
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