Shanghai this year experienced its hottest autumn in 55 years, with the average temperature reaching 20.8 degrees centigrade between September and November.

 

The city has experienced its hottest October in 134 years, according to the local meteorological academy.

 

Huang Jiaxin, secretary general of the academy, said that the average temperature in the month of October stood at 22.3 degrees centigrade, 3.5 degrees higher than the average in previous years.

 

Huang blamed global warming for the autumnal temperature surge.

 

"Due to global warming, east China has seen increasingly warmer weather in the past ten years or so, and this is especially true in Shanghai."

 

He acknowledged that the city was very likely to have a shorter and warmer winter this year.

 

According to official meteorological statistics, the temperature gap between Shanghai's downtown area of Lujiazui and suburb of Chongming island had risen to 1.5 degrees, compared with 0.2 to 0.3 degrees in 1958.

 

Huang was also quoted by the local Jiefang Daily as saying that the city received one hour less sunshine a day on average than 30 years ago.

 

(Xinhua News Agency December 6, 2006)