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SHANGHAI, CHINA - SHANGHAI may have endured one of its coldest months ever in January but 2007 was the eastern Chinese city's hottest year on record, state press reported on Friday.
The average temperature in Shanghai last year was 17.8 degrees C (64.04 F), the warmest since records began in 1873, Xinhua news agency said, citing the city's meteorological bureau.
This was also two degrees C more than the long-term average, according to the bureau.
While Shanghai on average sees only 10 days with temperatures above 35 degrees C, last year there were 30 such days, the bureau said.
The report did not give any reason for the spike, but China, like the rest of the world, has in recent years seen many extreme weather events that scientists have blamed on global warming.
Temperatures in China in 2006 were the warmest in 55 years, according to official data, while large swathes of the country last year endured devastating droughts and floods that Chinese scientists linked to global warming.
Meanwhile, glaciers in the Himalayan region of Tibet have been melting at an average rate of 131.4 square kilometres annually over the past 30 years, according to previously released Chinese government research.
The extreme weather pattern reversed course last month, when eastern and southern China suffered snow and ice storms that crippled power and transport networks.
In Shanghai, temperatures dropped below freezing and elderly residents said the snow storms that blanketed the city were the worst for decades. -- AFP
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