Umbrellas and ice cream look to be popular items in Shanghai this week with sweltering weather and frequent showers forecast as the city may finally enter its annual "plum rain season."

Big rains will drench the city today, with temperatures expected to hit 33 degrees Celsius, meteorologists said yesterday.

They said that a warm, wet air mass from southwestern China is very active now, while a weak cold front from northern sections of the country is on its way. When the two systems meet, they should create a fairly stable rain belt, which will cover Shanghai and other regions in southeast of China.

Showers are likely to prevail for at least five days this week and downpours are also expected on the weekend, said Cao Xiaogang, the city's chief meteorologist.

Yesterday witnessed the hottest temperatures this year with the high of 34.8 degrees Celsius, only 1.7 degrees short of the record high set in 1910, according to the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau.

The city "officially" entered the annual plum rain season last Saturday.

The rain season, named after the time of year when the fruit matures, usually lasts some 20 days.

It is caused by a moisture belt that hovers each year over the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and Shanghai lies on the northern edge of the region, meteorologists said.

The average temperature this week should hover around 25 degrees, but the mercury isn't expected to top 33 degrees.

(eastday.com June 13, 2003)