Expect thunderstorms and heat in week ahead

Local graduating students who will attend this year's national college entrance examination between July 7 and 9 should be aware that possible showers and thunderstorms will affect traffic.

As well as carrying an umbrella to examination venues, students should also prepare for high temperatures with the mercury expected to rise to 30 and 31 degrees Celsius on Wednesday and Thursday.

On Sunday, the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau issued two alerts, one yellow for lightning and one blue for rainstorms, at 10:30am and 11:50am, when downpours fell across most of the city. Suburban Baoshan, Chongming, Jiading, Songjiang and Minhang districts received most of the rain.

According to the weather bureau, it will be cats and dogs on Monday with the plum rain belt moving southeastward. The temperature will range between 24 and 27 degrees. 

Skies will remain gray with rain on Tuesday with the high increasing to 29 degrees.

Wednesday will be cloudy to overcast with showers or thundershowers at times. The high will touch 30 degrees.

The weather on Thursday will be similar to Wednesday with showers in the afternoon. A high of 31 is expected with a low of 25.

This pattern will continue over the weekend with the mercury keeping an upward trend to 34 degrees on July 12.

It will cool down on July 14.

Since the flood season began on June 1,  the city has witnessed torrential rainfall seven times, with a half more rain than the average of past years.

The city's southern and northern regions have received more rain than other areas. 

The average temperature so far this flood season is 25.6 degrees, one degree higher than in the past. The highest temperature recorded at downtown's benchmark Xujiahui weather station is 34.6 degrees, while the highest reading for the outskirts is 35.2 degrees in Qingpu District. Both occurred on June 12.

Xiaoshu, or slight heat, the 11th solar term on the Chinese calendar, falls on July 6.

In this period, temperatures will increase as a prelude to the solar term dashu, or great heat.