On August 17, 2022, Chengdu, Sichuan, a number of weather stations in Chengdu broke the historical record, and the red warning of high temperature for 7 consecutive days. Figure/IC photo
Zheng Qian's cat does not come home and squats in the yard all day to blow a fan. Two fans shook their heads and fanned the wind at the flowers she raised, giving the plants a life.
Tang Wenjing's children stopped classes, and the kindergarten graduation ceremony could not be held. Liang Wei felt hot in his shoes, and Lei Ming wanted to buy a popsicle and would give up for the 150-meter road. Traffic policeman Wang Meng's close-fitting vest came off and precipitated a layer of salt crystals.
On August 12, the Central Meteorological Observatory issued the first red warning of high temperatures this year, which is the highest level of warning for high temperatures on the mainland. In some parts of Sichuan, Chongqing, Shaanxi, Hubei and other places, high temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius occur. Among them, the southwest and north of Chongqing, Sichuan Jianyang and other local areas reached 41 to 43 degrees Celsius.
Since then, for 8 consecutive days, the Sichuan-Chongqing region has been in the core area of the red warning of high temperature.
On August 17, the maximum temperature in Beibei, Chongqing, was 44.7 degrees Celsius. Sichuan Dazhou, Suining, Nanchong, Yibin and other places broke through 41 degrees Celsius. For several days, the temperature in the Sichuan-Chongqing region has firmly occupied the top ten of the national high temperature ranking. The Sichuan-Chongqing region has become the center of high temperature in the country.
The shoals at the bottom of the Jialing River are looming out, and in this summer, the cycle of high temperature and lack of water makes people in the Sichuan-Chongqing region unable to sleep peacefully and do not want to go out, and everyone is using their own way to avoid the summer as much as possible, trying to survive this 60-year-old hot summer.
In addition to the high temperature, Sichuan-Chongqing is also short of water. As a major hydropower province, Sichuan's average precipitation this year is 51% less than that of the same period of the year, and the water storage of hydropower stations ranks at the lowest level in the same period of history.
Lack of water brings strain on electricity. Since July, Sichuan and Chongqing have repeatedly issued various documents to carry out power curtailment measures for enterprises and make every effort to ensure the use of electricity by residents, and on August 17, almost all shopping malls in Chengdu turned off electric lights in public areas to save energy to ensure that residents use electricity and prevent power outages from causing serious impacts on residents in high temperature weather.
On the afternoon of August 17, the Chengdu Municipal Government released a message that many places in Chengdu will meet heavy rain in the next 24 hours. Chongqing's artificial rain is also poised, and more than 100 meteorological anti-aircraft guns are ready, waiting for the right cloud.
Don't dare walk 150 meters to buy popsicles
Riding on the air-conditioned subway from home to and from the construction site is the most enjoyable moment of the day for Lei Ming.
At 8 a.m. on August 15, he walked out of the house and opened his umbrella first. The sun above his head was white, and he quickly walked into the subway station only 50 meters from home, touching his forehead and sweating on one hand.
"I've hardly ever taken a sunscreen in the summer in my life, for the first time this year." As a project supervisor at a municipal road construction site in Chengdu, his daily work is mainly to check safe and civilized construction, such as spraying, cooling and heat reduction drug distribution, etc. In this summer, the work of heat prevention and cooling has become more important than usual.
At 9 o'clock, Lei Ming arrived at the construction site on time, and the first thing he did was to drink a cup of chrysanthemum tea. The tea is brewed barrel by barrel, and two large barrels are consumed a day. Because the weather was too hot, a freezer was bought on the site to freeze the ice. A 2-liter vat, freeze a whole piece of ice, and throw it all into the insulated bucket for making tea.
"Consume three or four lumps of ice a day." It is also too hot this year, in previous years to drink tea to drink tea, where there is ice cubes such thing. After drinking tea, he began to check the medicine and found that the Huoxiang Zhengqi water had bottomed out again, "Each worker sent a box, a box of 12 sticks, probably enough for them to drink for more than a week." "Now, as long as it is the day of work, every worker will drink a bottle of Huoxiang zhengqi water before going to work, which is also something that has not been done in previous years."
Lei Ming said that the municipal road site was supposed to be accepted in August, but it is now impossible to achieve. According to the Measures for the Administration of Heat Prevention and Cooling Measures, if the maximum daily temperature reaches more than 40 °C, outdoor open-air operations on the same day should be stopped. "Once the heat is warned, all construction sites are required to stop work. In previous years, the high temperature warning was basically only one or two days, and this year it is often a week smaller. "On August 11, Chengdu issued the first high temperature red warning in 2022, and since this day, Chengdu has issued a high temperature red warning for 8 consecutive days.
When the temperature is above 37 °C and below 40 °C, the construction site can also start construction, but the cumulative outdoor open-air operation time cannot exceed 6 hours, and outdoor open-air operations must not be arranged within 3 hours during the highest temperature period. On the construction site where Lei Ming is located, the workers have long begun to work at the wrong peak. Dry from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 4 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day. Avoid peak sun exposure, but also within the national requirements.
From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., during the period when there is no work, Lei Ming stays with the workers in the air-conditioned board room, but it is still hot and anxious. Chrysanthemum tea is drunk four or five cups a day, and popsicles also want to eat, but because the commissary is 150 meters away from the construction site, he never dares to think and never act.
On August 12, the Chengdu Municipal Government issued a reminder for the safety precautions of continuous high temperature weather, requiring production and operation units to reasonably arrange the working hours of outdoor operators, avoid the high temperature period from 11 am to 3 pm, and implement measures to prevent and cool down the workplace. At the same time, the government reminds live workers that they must wear personal protective equipment when working, and strictly prevent a large amount of sweating from causing an electric shock accident caused by a decrease in the body's resistance.
On August 18, 2022, citizens blowing air conditioners in Chengdu subway stations. Courtesy of respondents
Hiding in the mall to blow air conditioning is a good choice
Lei Ming's daughter is 4 years old this year, and the kindergarten has been on holiday for three weeks because of the epidemic in Chengdu in July. Classes should have resumed this Monday, but because of the high temperature, the kindergarten continued to have a holiday. "I don't know when it will recover. and other notifications. "In the parent group, the teacher is texting every day, reminding parents not to take their children to swim in the river, and the air conditioner cannot be blown for a long time."
Carrying out publicity and education on drowning prevention and increasing the guardianship of minors is one of the key points of attention of the relevant departments in Chengdu in this round of high temperatures. There are more inspections and inspections in key waters such as reservoirs, rivers, ditches and ponds than in the past, and safety warning signs and protective facilities have also been inspected and improved one after another.
The daughter is now basically out of the house and stays at home every day to play. Lei Ming felt that the child watched too many cartoons, but there was no other way. "In the past, I used to go out to play for half a day in the morning, and then go out to play for a few hours after eating in the evening, but now I can go downstairs after 9 pm to play with children in the community."
On August 18, 2022, the number of children playing in the swimming pool of a community in Chengdu increased significantly. Courtesy of respondents
The child himself did not want to go out and felt too hot. Occasionally want to go out, but also to go to the mall to play, in addition to the playable things, mainly or the mall "not hot".
Tang Wenjing's children simply stayed at Grandma Beichuan's house and did not return to Chengdu because of the heat.
Tang Wenjing's company is in Chengdu Chongzhou Industrial Park, where a large number of furniture factories are concentrated. She remembered that the factory began to cut electricity on July 5, and from August 14, in order to ensure that there was no problem in people's livelihood electricity, most of the industrial power users in Sichuan Province stopped production. "Take a high temperature holiday and let electricity be used by the people."
Workers' dormitories can't move all the air conditioners together, and more than 20 people often squeeze into one or two rooms, or simply go out during the day and squat in the mall to blow air conditioning. Hiding in the mall is considered by many to be a good option. In Neijiang, Sichuan, a number of shopping malls have delayed the closing time during this time, and the original closure of 22 o'clock is now basically delayed to 23 o'clock.
According to the State Grid WeChat public account, on August 16, Xin Baoan, chairman of the board of directors and secretary of the party group of the State Grid Co., Ltd., said that it is necessary to give play to the role of the allocation of resources in the large power grid, organize cross-regional and inter-provincial surplus and inter-provincial surplus and mutual assistance, and maximize support for the power supply in sichuan and Chongqing.
"This day to go out to run the business, customers have to be a life and death friend"
As a loan broker, Liang Wei and his colleagues in Chongqing need to go out to run business every day, so they are very concerned about the weather. "It's scary hot." 'Hot' is the hottest topic right now. "How hot is it?" His voice rose several degrees, "Walking in leather shoes is hot!"
He grew up in a city famous for its heat, but compared with now, he felt that the heat of the past was commonplace. Now, every morning at 9 o'clock, the sun, like the previous 11 o'clock, was so white that it made him dizzy.
"This day out to run the business, the customer must be a life and death friend." Liang Wei's company, the leaders have begun to let them try not to go out, in previous summers the company will distribute some fruits and drinks, this year, wind oil essence and other anti-heat drugs have become a must.
It was so hot that he didn't want to be outside for a moment. He found that the square dancing concubines had disappeared, and the Guanyin Bridge was empty and rarely quiet.
On the morning of August 15, because of a business that was difficult to shirk, Liang Wei took the subway from home to the customer's home. "Oh my god! The sweat on my body was flowing down, and a few steps were dry again. I almost fainted. After walking a while, he wanted to take a taxi, and the phone was pulled out, and the prompt of "the device is overheating" drove him crazy. Dragging his feet step by step to the customer's house, the other party was already waiting downstairs, "saying that he was afraid of my heat stroke." ”
Taxi drivers are still on the road. At 4 p.m. on August 16, Master Wang, who lives in Chongqing's Jiulongpo District, picked up the car from his partner and began another 12-hour work.
It's the hottest time of the day, with temperatures showing 43 to 44 degrees Celsius. The first guest he met was to go to a nearby hospital to do nucleic acid, and as soon as the guest got out of the car, he turned around and received a single order to go to Nanping Wanda Plaza Animation Water World. After this single run, Master Wang did not leave and continued to wait in line at the door. "Now we don't have any taxis to go to any business districts like Guanyin Bridge, and there is no one at all." Only these water parks, parks and other places have guests. He pinched his fingers and calculated the waiting time for the recent sports car, "It is normal to wait in line in these places for passengers, good luck for 20 minutes, bad luck for 40 minutes." ”
On this day, after more than 40 minutes of waiting, he finally waited for the family of three who had finished playing. Their destination is a nearby ancient town, close to the river, relatively cool.
Business is not ideal under the superposition of the epidemic and high temperatures. "I earned 37 yuan in the least day." He sighed.
Master Wang runs the evening shift, and when it is good, a class can earn 100 yuan, and his day-shift partner has no income for several consecutive days, and can only earn "board money" (taxi share money).
On August 17, 2022, Chongqing Jiefangbei Pedestrian Street, citizens braved the high temperature to travel. Figure/IC photo
"Rolling" for 1 hour a day
The "rolling" (people's affectionate name for giant pandas) of the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base (hereinafter referred to as the base) is almost not playing outdoors this summer.
"As long as the temperature exceeds 26 degrees, we have to consider the risk of high temperature." A staff member of the base explained that because of its large size and "no big idea" of the rise in body temperature, adult pandas do not know how to go under the trees to hide in the shade in hot weather, or dive into the pool to cool down, "crouching in the sun for a while, and then starting to open their mouths and breathe, this is already heat stroke, we have to rush to flush and collect the cat." ”
In order to prevent this from happening, after the heat, the base will only release cats in the morning and evening when it is cool, and when it is particularly hot, it will be limited to a very short period of time in the morning. "These two days we only have a time period from 6:30 to 8:00 a.m., and let the big cats come out and play for a while." The kittens are directly indoors. ”
Air conditioning and ice are still the main means of heat protection and cooling in various zoos. With about 8 liters of ice, chengdu zoo consumes more than 100 a day, almost double that of previous years.
"All the animals are greatly affected, of course, the animals in the high altitude and high cold areas will be more affected, except for the giant panda, and the golden snub-nosed monkey." According to the staff of Chengdu Zoo, the indoor and outdoor areas of golden snub-nosed monkeys are not artificially isolated, but most of the time the monkeys are reluctant to come out and move.
In the Changle Wildlife Breeding Farm, a total of 700 to 800 birds are raised, including swans, spotted geese and red-bellied golden pheasants. Zhou Ming, the head of the breeding farm, said more than 100 sub-adult birds have died this summer due to high temperatures. "It's just hatched, and I can't stand it." He did a rough calculation, accounting for about 10%.
The rest of the birds are not happy, and they open their mouths all day long. Zhou Ming was in pain, thinking about how to make the birds live better. He got a 300-liter dispenser, filled it with water, and sprayed it on the bushes twice a day to cool it down. The birds hide under the leaves, peck at their feathers and tilt their heads, which is the most relaxing moment of their day.
On July 6, 2022, at the Chengdu Zoo in Sichuan Province, a giant panda prepares to enjoy "fruit ice". Recently, the city of Chengdu has been experiencing persistently hot weather. Figure/IC photo
Firefighters bring water into their homes
The impact of the heat on Chengdu's traffic conditions can be seen in the recent slight increase in rear-end accidents on the Third Ring Road. Chengdu traffic police wang meng said, "The sun is direct, coupled with many drivers do not prepare sunglasses, the glare of the sun will lead to a delay in judging the time, so rear-end accidents often occur." ”
As a street duty officer, Wang Meng still wears a full uniform on duty every day. The clothes on the body are wet and dry, and it is the norm. During the day, when I go to work, I can occasionally go back to my unit to go to the toilet, drink a drink, or sit in a nearby mall and take a break. Shopping malls are also cooler than units - Chengdu institutions have recently asked for electricity conservation, and air conditioners must not be turned on below 27 degrees.
Since the beginning of summer, Wang Meng has used up three bottles of sunscreen. For him, this thing is unlikely to achieve the effect of sun protection, but it can ensure that the exposed skin is not blistered. This year, his unit attaches unprecedented importance to the logistics support of heat protection, sunscreen is not restricted, the unit is frozen with ice water at any time, and every time he goes back, Wang Meng comes out with a whole bottle to drink.
But of all the ways to cool off, his favorite moment to ride a motorcycle, there is a slight wind blowing, bringing some coolness.
In the heat and heat, firefighters are also on standby. At 11:58 on August 15, the fire station in Baisha Town, Hejiang County, Luzhou City, received a police task: a van spontaneously combusted.
Firefighter Wang Xiaofeng quickly put the orange-red combat suit on his body, belt, shoes, helmet, clouds and flowing water, one by one, according to the regulations, within one minute of receiving the police, the fire truck must drive out of the garage.
Combat uniforms weigh seven or eight pounds, and shoes with steel plates alone weigh about three pounds. The police must be fully armed, and even oxygen tanks are a must. On this day, because the police area was an open area, Wang Xiaofeng and his comrades-in-arms were exempted from the weight of the oxygen tank, and even so, sweat began to flow in the first second after putting on the equipment, quickly wetting the physical vest he was wearing inside.
After arriving at the scene, Wang Xiaofeng's first judgment was spontaneous combustion. But after calling up the vehicle surveillance, he found that the flames started from the bottom of the van, "crouch down to see, there are traces of straw burning on the chassis." ”
After 15 years as a firefighter, Wang Xiaofeng encountered such a situation for the first time. "Rural roads are often lined with rice and grass, and there are often cars that roll straw into the bottom of the car. But it is indeed rare for vehicles to burn because of straw friction. Mainly it was too hot and too dry. ”
There are other tasks besides extinguishing fires. At the end of July, due to the lack of water in some surrounding villages and towns. The Baisha Town Fire Station delivered several trips of water to the villagers.
By August 16, the pressure to deliver water suddenly increased. On the 16th alone, Wang Xiaofeng and his comrades in arms sent 4 trips of water, and the next day, this number increased to 6.
The same scene is appearing in many areas of Sichuan, where firefighters drive fire trucks and pull water to the "doorstep" of residents to solve the urgent needs of residents who are short of water.
On August 18, 2022, affected by the high temperature, the staff of the Nanshan Forest Fire Prevention headquarters in Nan'an District, Chongqing City, stuck to their posts and checked the situation of each fire observation point in real time. Figure/IC photo
Wait for the rain to come
Xiao Hongru, chief forecaster of the Sichuan Meteorological Observatory, said in an interview with the media that the high temperature in the Sichuan Basin in summer is mainly affected by two systems: one is the Qinghai-Tibet high pressure, and the other is the subtropical high pressure. "The first high temperature in July was due to the Qinghai-Tibet high pressure, and this time, it was caused by the subtropical high pressure strengthening the westward rise to control the Sichuan Basin." Under the influence of high pressure, the air is clear during the day, the solar radiation is enhanced, and the temperature rises rapidly, "According to the latest data, most parts of the Sichuan Basin will continue to be hot until August 23," she said. ”
The high temperature makes many infrared temperature gates fail. Xu Saiyu is used to being stopped when passing through the subway gate. After being stopped, exit first, wait a few seconds and walk again, and pass smoothly.
In the hospital where Wen Yan works, every day people can't pass through the hospital gates," they are generally called to go to the side and blow on the big fan for a few minutes. ”
Such a situation also occurs in the West China Hospital of Sichuan University. Because the outdoor temperature is too high, the means of judging the fever personnel with infrared rays are not enough. "When a lot of people pass by, the imagers are red-through." A hospital worker said that for now, the staff at the gate can only ask manually, and the preliminary judgment should be whether they should go to other wards or be transferred to the fever clinic.
In the unprecedented heat, 63-year-old Zheng Qian installed 4 fans at home. 2 fans in the bedroom and 2 in the garden.
Although there is a fan blowing, but the blowing out is a hot wind, in the middle of the night, Zheng Qian turned over and over a sweat, it was not easy to dry, a little movement, another sweat.
"It's very painful, it's torturous." She had no other words to describe the feeling of the heat, "Chengdu has never been so hot." "The air conditioning in the house suddenly went wrong this summer, and it was empty but not cooled. The daughter is out of town, anxious to place an order online to buy her a new one, open the web page to see, at least a week later to have the goods.
Of the three cats in the house, the small one sneaked into the bedroom every night, rubbing the fan and lying on the mat, while the other two simply did not come home, squatting on the small table in the backyard and blowing the fan. The two fans were blown at the flowers and grasses at home. Zheng Fiber watered every day, but the flowers were like not enough to drink, watered today, looked at tomorrow, and dried up again.
The sweltering heat made her give up all unnecessary activities. Once a week, I gave up the party with my old friends, and the habit of going out and turning the street occasionally was also abandoned. On the afternoon of August 17, she came out of the north gate of the community, bought some wine for her husband and breakfast the next day, moved to the south gate to go home, and walked for a total of less than 400 meters.
When she goes out, she always carries a bottle of juice in her bag and wears a huge visor. The hat was bought by her daughter when she traveled, and she had never had the opportunity to appear on camera before, and in this summer, it became a must-have for Zheng Qian.
Recently, when driving along the river, Master Wang Yuguang looked at the river and felt uncomfortable in his heart. He had never seen Chongqing like this, and he had the impression that the Jialing River in August should have soared. He used to think it was annoying to have a rainstorm, but now he and the whole of Chongqing City are waiting for a rain.
On August 17, 2022, the Jialing River, part of the river beach, was exposed in Chongqing. Courtesy of respondents
According to media reports, on the afternoon of August 16, at the "2022 Chongqing High Temperature drought resistance press conference", the relevant person in charge of the Chongqing Meteorological Bureau said that at present, Chongqing has made preparations for artificial rain increase, and is waiting for suitable climatic conditions such as cloud height and water vapor. "Once the conditions are met, the city's 266 artificial weather-influencing operation points, 107 anti-aircraft guns, 96 rockets and nearly 600 operators will carry out operations in a timely manner."
On August 17, the Chengdu Municipal Government announced that some districts and counties in Chengdu will meet heavy rain in the next 24 hours. At 4 p.m. on the 18th, the sweltering Chengdu was still cloudy, and Zheng Qian pushed open the window to look out, and the rain had not yet arrived.
(Zheng Qian and Wang Meng are pseudonyms in the text)
Beijing News reporter Yang Xue
Edited by Hu Jie, Proofreader Li Lijun