China is enduring a monster 70-day heatwave with authorities forced to try and "seed" clouds to get rainfall.
Seeding is an experimental method usually carried out by dropping metal particles into clouds in the hope an existing cloud will then drop its rain on a particular area.
Silver iodide rods about the size of a cigarette are dropped to form ice crystals, which hopefully produce more rain.
Falling water levels of the Yangtze River revealed three Buddhist statues believed to be 600 years old on a submerged island.
China has now experienced 12 days in a row now under a "red alert" warning for over 40C. Now considered a new normal by some experts, the country is experiencing a major drought thanks to the extreme temperatures.
The record-breaking wave is of huge significance to the country's climate, which has seen 66 rivers drying up in the Southwestern region of Chongqing.
This has a knock-on effect on the country's electricity as hydropower dams dry up while shipping companies are forced to halt major operations.
Meteorologist Bob Henson told Axios: "I can't think of anything comparable to China's heat wave of summer 2022 in its blend of intensity, duration, geographic extent and number of people affected."
Rainfall is now recorded at 80 per cent lower than in previous years, likely affecting the number of wildfires. A total of 19 wildfires have been recorded in Chongqing and Sichuan in just the last 10 days.
Henson added: "We know that when drought happens, a warming climate accentuates the impacts, parching the landscape and allowing temperatures to rise even further. We've seen the drought-and-heat playbook in action across the Northern Hemisphere this summer."
Zhushan, in Central China's Hubei Province, recorded sweltering temperatures of 44C on Saturday, August 13 and over 260 weather stations have seen their highest ever temperatures record in the last 70 days.
The high temperatures have even affected the country's tourism industry with the famous Giant Buddha of Leshan briefly closed due to the extreme temperatures.
According to Carbon Brief, more than 400 peer-reviewed studies link the rise in temperatures to human activity making extreme temperatures more likely.
A study in 2021 by Chinese scientists found that the country was experiencing a combination of fry and hot events with a "high likelihood" that climate change was a factor.
The Beijing Climate Centre said: "The average intensity of heatwave events, impact scale, and duration taken into account, the combined intensity of regional heatwave event of China since 13 June has reached the strongest since the complete meteorological observation record existed."
