Cool tidings after rainstorm drenches Shanghai

Shanghai can expect cooler days after a rainstorm lashed the city on Tuesday.

The day of the Qixi Festival, or Chinese Valentine's Day, began with sunshine but ended with showers, triggering five alerts, for heatwave, rainstorm, lightning, gale and hail, respectively.

The maximum temperature reached 35 degrees Celsius, making Tuesday the 20th high-temperature day this year in Shanghai.

But the thunderstorm that swept the city from west to east in the afternoon brought down the temperature leading to the lifting of the heat alert.

Wednesday will be cloudy but rains will hit the city from time to time, with the mercury ranging between 26 degrees and 31 degrees, according to forecasters, who added that the rest of the week will be dominated by overcast weather and afternoon showers.

Wednesday also marks chushu, the 14th solar term in the Chinese lunar calendar, which means the end of heat. However, forecasters said it's too early to say goodbye to summer, and the rest of the month is expected to be relatively cool with temperatures between 26 degrees and 33 degrees.