Shanghai Enters Peak Summer Under Dashu Heat

Shanghai woke up to another scorcher on Friday, with temperatures already near 28 degrees Celsius by early morning and climb to 37 degrees by afternoon.

The Shanghai Meteorological Bureau issued a yellow alert for high temperatures at 8:40am, while Minhang and Baoshan districts, typically warmer inland areas, received the more serious orange alert.

Skies will stay mostly sunny with a chance of scattered afternoon showers or thunderstorms. Southeast winds will blow at 4 to 5 on the Beaufort scale, reaching 6 near the river and coast. Humidity will range between 55 percent and 85 percent.

Residents heading outdoors should apply sunscreen, drink plenty of water and watch for sudden afternoon storms.

The week will remain hot

The pattern of sunny mornings and scattered afternoon thunderstorms will hold through the weekend and into next week. Highs will stay above 35 degrees for most of the week.

Conditions will shift by next Thursday, when thicker cloud cover moves in and brings more consistent rain. The dry heat will give way to a mugginess many residents find harder to bear than the sun itself.

A new typhoon takes shape

Tropical storm Noul, the season's 12th named storm, formed over waters east of the Philippines this morning. As of 8am, its center sat about 505 kilometers northeast of Manila, with sustained winds of 18 meters per second.

Noul is expected to strengthen as it tracks west-northwest at 30 to 35 kilometers per hour, making landfall as a typhoon somewhere between Zhuhai and Zhangpu in China's southeast Fujian Province late Saturday or early Sunday.

Anyone with travel plans along the southeastern coast should monitor local forecasts closely.

Entering Dashu

Shanghai entered Dashu, or Major Heat, on Thursday with 33-37 degree highs. The Xujiahui monitoring station recorded a full-day range of 25.2 to 37 degrees, while Chongming saw brief afternoon thunderstorms.

Dashu, the 12th of China's 24 solar periods, represents summer's peak and the season's end before autumn.

Fighting heat with heat

Shanghai's Yangtze Delta neighbors have their own answer to Dashu's punishing temperatures, which may seem counterintuitive: consuming something hot.

Restaurants across the region see a rush of diners ordering mutton soup during the "fu" days, a tradition rooted in nearby Xuzhou and known as the Fuyang Festival.

The idea, known as "fighting heat with heat," holds that a bowl of hot soup induces sweating that flushes toxins from the body, leaving diners feeling cooler afterward rather than more overheated.

Traditional Chinese medicine clinics see their own summer rush this time of year. Patients line up for sanfutie, medicated herbal patches applied to specific acupoints on the back and chest during the hottest days of the year. Practitioners say the treatment, timed to when the body's pores are naturally open, prevents winter respiratory and joint issues.

Many families drink suanmeitang (plum juice), a tart, smoky drink made from smoked plums, hawthorn, and rock sugar, over ice to cool off in the afternoon.