City sees its hottest day of the year so far

Wednesday was Shanghai's hottest day of the year so far with temperatures climbing to 25.8 degrees Celsius.

However, Thursday and Friday will be cooler before temperatures begin to rise again over the weekend. Monday is likely to see a high of around 26 degrees.

Shanghai Meteorological Bureau said an area of high pressure was responsible for the warm sunshine on Wednesday but that skies would be cloudy and overcast over the following two days. 

Thursday's high will be around 23 degrees with a low of 14 degrees. The downward trend will continue on Friday with a high of just 20 degrees.

Late on Wednesday, the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau issued a yellow alert for heavy fog with visibility expected to drop to 500 meters from midnight to early morning. 

A sand storm currently dominating northern China is unlikely to affect the city directly, forecasters said.