Plants dried up by extreme heat might get swept away in floodwaters.
China has been battling a record heat wave this summer, but recent weather forecasts warn residents that floodwaters could be coming. China seems to be either scorched or underwater.
The record-breaking heat wave in northwestern and southeastern China has dried up close to 530,000 square miles of land. Chinese government data said that in July alone, high temperatures caused some $400 million worth of economic losses, affecting more than 5 million people and 1 million acres of land. The heat wave has dried up rivers and lakes across the region. China’s largest freshwater lake, the Poyang, began receding in July, two months earlier than normal. The Yangtze, China’s largest river also shrank over the summer. This river provides drinking water to over 400 million Chinese and is vital to China’s economy. In the Chongqing region, 66 rivers dried up.
Read more at “China: Drought to Floods”