Umbrella time with heavy rain on the way

The heaviest rain so far this year is expected to fall on the city on Friday afternoon and last through Saturday morning accompanied by thunder, lightning and gales.

Temperatures, which reached 31.5 degrees Celsius on Thursday, will cool to just 23 degrees on Saturday, forecasters said. 

The city’s weather bureau said the average temperature in first five months of the year was 2.4 degrees higher than usual, the warmest such period since records began. 

Although this year's summer arrived earlier than usual, rainfall over the past few months was less than before.

By Wednesday, the maximum precipitation in different parts of the city ranged from 24 to 33 millimeters. At the benchmark downtown Xujiahui weather station, the highest recorded was 27.7 millimeters on January 23.

Between midnight on Friday and early Saturday morning up to 50 millimeters of rain could fall on the city with some parts seeing as much as 70 millimetres.

The rain will weaken over the morning and end on Saturday afternoon.

Sunday and Monday will be dry and overcast. But another series of rainy days will begin on Tuesday and last to the weekend. 

Temperatures on Friday will be between 20 and 25 degrees, 19 to 23 degrees on Saturday and 21 to 26 degrees on Sunday..

Temperatures next week will range from 22 to 29 degrees.