People holding umbrellas walk on a street in Yinchuan City, capital of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, June 24, 2009. Yinchuan on Tuesday reported a heat wave as the highest temperature reached 34 degrees Celsius in the city. (Xinhua/Wang Peng) Photo Gallery>>>

    BEIJING, June 25 (Xinhua) -- China is still on high temperature alert Thursday, as the heat wave that has hit many northern and western parts continued.

    Temperatures remained above 35 degrees Celsius as the National Meteorological Center (NMC) maintained the second highest alert level Thursday morning, after issuing the alert at Wednesday noon. The NMC said the heat was expected to ease Sunday.

    The second highest alter level, or the orange alert, means the maximum temperature will rise above 37 degree Celsius in 24 hours.

    The maximum temperature would be more than 37 degree Celsius in the cities of Beijing and Tianjin, most parts of Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong and Henan, and some parts in Shaanxi, Jiangsu, Anhui and Xinjiang in the west, meteorologists said.

    The temperature would hit a high of 40 degree Celsius in some parts of the above regions, including the southern parts of Beijing.

People holding umbrellas walk on a street in Yinchuan City, capital of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, June 24, 2009. (Xinhua/Wang Peng) Photo Gallery>>>

    The maximum temperature was read at 39.6 degree Celsius at an observatory in the southern suburb of Beijing on Wednesday, to top previous records and become the highest ever.

    The city also reported this year's new high of daily electricity load Wednesday, at 11.84 million kw, up nearly 20 percent from a year ago.

    He Lifu, NMC's chief forecaster, said such extreme cases of continuous high temperature in north China would persist before cold air arrives on Sunday.

    NMC's He explained that such high temperature in the north was a result of both a lack of rain and sustained sunshine that increased evaporation, which led to higher temperature in the near-earth atmosphere.

    He played down the impact of such high temperatures on power and water consumption of residents who seek to cool themselves, and added that no severe impact was expected as such hot weather would not last long.