Shanghai's hot streak finally came to an end yesterday, just one day before the start of autumn according to the Chinese lunar calendar.

Yesterday's high was 34.5 degrees Celsius, ending a streak of 19 consecutive days with temperatures topping 35 degrees.

Local meteorologists say, however, that there will be more hot days this summer, either later this month or in early September.

Today's high is expected to be 34 degrees, according to Cao Xiaogang, chief meteorologist at the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau.

While the lunar calendar considers today the start of autumn, meteorologists don't consider summer to have ended until the city posts five consecutive days with average daily temperatures below 22 degrees.

The lunar term marks a turning point when temperatures generally tend to decline.

The abnormal absence of any typhoons in the city so far this summer may change this month as meteorologists are tracking active typhoon movements in the Pacific Ocean. Usually, the first typhoon of the year hits Shanghai in early July.

Yesterday's slight temperature drop is due to a low pressure system moving into the city from Jiangsu Province, said Cao. The system weakened the stable subtropical high-pressure system that has controlled local weather for weeks and brought heavy rains to most of the city yesterday afternoon.

Xuhui District received 60 millimeters of rain yesterday while Changning District was hit with 57 millimeters, surpassing the torrential rain standard of 50 millimeters.

Flash floods were reported in some areas of the city, with 80 homes reportedly saturated with water 10 to 20 centimeters deep.

The rain did provide good news for the city's over-whelmed power grid. Shanghai Electric Power Co resumed normal power supply to some 400 factories, which had to cancel or shorten their work schedules in the past week to avoid the peak load time.

The city's electricity network has been stable over the past two days, with the peak load hovering around 13 million kilowatts. However, there are still 1,000 enterprises that need to rest at peak load times to spare 800,000 kilowatts to meet the city's generating capacity.

(eastday.com August 8, 2003)