Regions unevenly hit by heat, flooding or drought

Over 200 rescuers were still busy searching for two missing people at press time.

Some areas in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Jiangsu provinces, including Jiangsu's capital Nanjing, have received precipitation of 25 to 31.6 centimeters since Monday, the National Meteorological Center said.

There is no sign that this round of rainfall will subside soon, though the affected areas will be smaller on Wednesday and Thursday. The rain will mainly cover Guizhou province and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River from Saturday to Monday, it said.

In Yunnan province, however, the China National Commission for Disaster Reduction and the Ministry of Emergency Management has launched a Level 4 emergency response to cope with drought.

According to a media release from the ministry, it, together with the Ministry of Finance, has dispatched 60 million yuan ($8.5 million) in disaster relief funds to the province to help affected people.

Meanwhile, people in many regions will endure scorching temperatures over the next five days.

Most areas south of the Yangtze will be hit by a heat wave of 35 C to 39 C on Wednesday and Thursday. From Friday to Monday, the highest temperature in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei province cluster, the northern part of Shandong province and the central and western parts of Liaoning province could reach 40 C, the National Meteorological Center said.