BEIJING - A remote township in China’s arid north-west endured temperatures of more than 52 deg C on Sunday, reported state media, setting a record for a country that was battling minus 50 deg C weather just six months ago.

Temperatures in Sanbao township in Xinjiang’s Turpan Depression soared to as high as 52.2 deg C on Sunday, reported state-run Xinjiang Daily on Monday, with the record heat expected to persist for at least another five days.

The Sunday temperature broke a previous record of 50.3 deg C measured in 2015 near Ayding in the depression, a vast basin of sand dunes and dried-up lakes at more than 150m below sea level.

Since April, countries across Asia have been hit by several rounds of record-breaking heat, stoking concerns about their ability to adapt to a rapidly changing climate. The target of keeping long-term global warming to within 1.5 deg C is moving out of reach, climate experts say.

Prolonged bouts of high temperatures in China have challenged power grids and crops, and concerns are mounting of a possible repeat of 2022’s drought, the most severe in 60 years.

China is no stranger to dramatic swings in temperature across the seasons, but the swings are getting wider.

On Jan 22, temperatures in Mohe, a city in north-eastern Heilongjiang province, plunged to minus 53 deg C, according to the local weather bureau, smashing China’s previous all-time low of minus 52.3 deg C set in 1969.

Since then, the heaviest rains in a decade have hit central China, ravaging wheat fields in an area known as the country’s granary.

This week, the United States and China are looking to rekindle efforts to fight global warming, with the US’ special climate envoy John Kerry holding talks with his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua in Beijing. REUTERS