China has issued its first national drought alert of the year as authorities battle forest fires and mobilise specialist teams to protect crops from scorching temperatures across the Yangtze river basin.

The national 'yellow alert', issued late on Thursday, comes after regions from Sichuan in the southwest to Shanghai in the Yangtze delta have experienced weeks of extreme heat, with government officials repeatedly citing global climate change as the cause. The alert is two notches short of the most serious warning on Beijing's scale.

As authorities battle forest fires and mobilize specialist teams to protect crops from scorching temperatures across the Yangtze river basin, China has issued a ‘yellow alert’, its first national drought warning of the year, according to a report by Reuters.

The news of the alert, which is two notches short of the most serious warning on Beijing's scale, comes after regions from Sichuan in the southwest to Shanghai in the Yangtze delta have experienced weeks of extreme heat.

As many as 66 rivers across 34 counties in the southwestern region of Chongqing have dried up, state broadcaster CCTV said on Friday. Citing local government data, it added that rainfall in Chongqing this year is down 60 percent compared to the seasonal norm, and the soil in several districts is severely short of moisture.

As a result, the Chongqing agricultural bureau has set up expert teams to protect vulnerable crops and expand planting to compensate for losses ahead of the autumn harvest.
According to data from China's emergency ministry late on Thursday, high temperatures in July alone caused direct economic losses of 2.73 billion yuan ($400 million), affecting 5.5 million people.

Furthermore, temperatures soared at 113 degrees Fahrenheit in the district of Beibei, north of Chongqing's urban center on Thursday, according to China's weather bureau.

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