Shanghai set to sizzle further as hottest plum rain season ends

Shanghai's hottest-ever "plum rain" season over the past 17 years will end on Tuesday, local weather officials said.

Meanwhile, the city is bracing for this year's hottest period, sanfu.

The city's plum rain season started on June 17 and lasted 24 days – three days longer than usual, with abundant rainfall and high-temperature days, according to the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau.

As of 8am on Monday, the average precipitation had reached 348.7 millimeters, 50 percent more than usual.

It is the hottest plum rain season since 2007, the bureau said.

During the season, the average temperature in the city was 27.8 degrees Celsius, which was 1.8 degrees higher than normal. The average temperature recorded at the city's benchmark Xujiahui Weather Station was 28.1 degrees, 1.6 degrees higher than normal.

The end of the plum rain season – nicknamed for the season when the fruit ripens – always indicates the hottest part of the year, sanfu, which will fall on Tuesday as well, the bureau explained.

More scorching days are forecast ahead.

From Tuesday, the high temperature in Shanghai will be around 37 degrees over the next ten days, with lows of around 28 degrees, according to the forecaster.

And thunderstorms are predicted to hit the city from time to time during sanfu.