China Heat Wave: Cars Burn, Roads Get Warped

The heat wave currently enveloping China's southern regions has not only affected crops and people's temperaments. It has also led to sudden cars getting burned and roads getting warped.

Apparently, the air conditioning devices installed in cars experience being burnt out too.

"Air conditioners can get heat stroke, too. If it runs for a long time and the outdoor temperature is too high, the rubber coat of the wires can melt. That will put the circuit at risk of shorting out," a certain car air condition mechanic named Mr Liu told news portal Ecns.cn.

Since the start of the maddening heat wave, Mr Liu, whose air conditioner maintenance shop is located in Shanghai, said he receives at least a dozen calls in a day just to attend to malfunctioning car air conditioning units.

Since May, fire fighters in Shanghai have attended to at least 60 cases of cars suddenly catching fire and getting burned.

China, particularly Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Jiangxi, central China's Hunan and Hubei, south China's Fujian, and the Shanghai and Chongqing municipalities, has experienced temperatures hitting more than 35 degrees C (95 degrees F) recently, and this could further jump to hit 41 degrees C until the middle of August.

Road surfaces on a provincial highway near the city of Taizhou have also been deformed and warped all due to the heat wave.

Wang Jianhua, deputy chief of Road Maintenance Sector of Huangyan Section, 82 Zhejiang Provincial Highway, explained that cement surface when heated expands, and does the reverse, contracts when cooled. When this happens, road surfaces become at risk to cracks.

Covering about 30 square meters, the damaged road with the warped cement surface measured 19 centimeters higher than the normal level.