(Yicai Global) Aug. 22 -- China’s southeastern Jiangxi province recently issued meteorological orange alerts for drought in several areas. The situation is expected to continue in the coming week.

Some 75 counties in Jiangxi, located in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze, Asia’s longest river, experienced moderate drought, 22 counties severe drought, and 35 counties extreme drought, according to the Jiangxi Meteorological Service.

Temperatures in Jiangxi averaged 31.9 degrees Celsius from Aug. 11 to Aug. 19, up 3.6° C from a year earlier and setting a new record since 1961, when China began to record such data, according to statistics. Most counties experienced temperatures above 37° C for eight to nine days, with the peak being 41.4° C.

Most areas in Jiangxi have encountered mild to moderate agricultural drought, with other parts experiencing severe conditions, according to the province’s agricultural drought monitoring. Single-cropping rice and late rice in some areas have also been affected.

The land around a river in Jiangxi is arid due to high temperatures.

A river in Jiangxi is dried up from the extreme heat wake that hit the province this summer.

At the confluence of two watercourses in Jiangxi, the rivers show their banks as they are thinning out because of the continuous heat wave.

Drained river in Jiangxi shows its riverbeds.

The National Meteorological Center issued a red alert for high temperatures for the tenth straight day yesterday. Nearly 200 national observation stations in Chongqing, Sichuan, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi have reported temperatures above 40° C since Aug. 1. Chongqing’s Beibei district suffered temperatures of over 40° C for 17 days. On Aug. 20, 65 national observation stations across the country reached record high temperatures.

Meteorological experts said that the high temperatures in the Sichuan Basin, Jiangnan, Jianghan, and Jianghuai areas will begin to drop from Aug. 26.

Editor: Futura Costaglione