BEIJING (Reuters) -&nbsp;Dramatic&nbsp;swings&nbsp;between&nbsp;extreme&nbsp;heat&nbsp;and&nbsp;intense&nbsp;rainfall&nbsp;are&nbsp;testing&nbsp;China's&nbsp;ability&nbsp;to&nbsp;cope&nbsp;with&nbsp;increasingly&nbsp;wild&nbsp;weather, as&nbsp;high&nbsp;temperatures&nbsp;challenge&nbsp;power&nbsp;grids&nbsp;and&nbsp;water&nbsp;security&nbsp;while&nbsp;floods&nbsp;ruin&nbsp;crops&nbsp;and&nbsp;threaten&nbsp;urban&nbsp;populations.
Officials have warned repeatedly China is especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to its large population&nbsp;and&nbsp;unevenly distributed&nbsp;water&nbsp;supplies, even as infrastructure is built&nbsp;and&nbsp;policies are rolled out to bolster the country's climate resilience.
HOW WORRYING IS THE&nbsp;HEAT?
The average number of&nbsp;high-temperature days stood at 4.1 in January-June, already&nbsp;higher than the full-year average of 2.2 days.&nbsp;Temperatures&nbsp;are expected to climb further in July&nbsp;and&nbsp;August.
In June,&nbsp;temperatures&nbsp;averaged 21.1 Celsius (70 Fahrenheit), or 0.7C&nbsp;higher than normal&nbsp;and&nbsp;the second-highest since 1961, with 70 monitoring stations across China smashing records.&nbsp;
So far, northern China has borne the brunt of the&nbsp;extreme&nbsp;heat. In June, Beijing logged 13.2 days with&nbsp;temperatures&nbsp;of at least 35C, the&nbsp;highest number of super hot days for the month since records began in 1961, with the mercury rising to at least 40C on a few days.
Concerns are mounting over a repeat of last year's drought, the most severe in 60 years, which at its peak affected 6.09 million hectares of&nbsp;crops&nbsp;with economic losses reaching billions of yuan.
Rainfall&nbsp;in Yunnan province in the southwest plummeted 55% on year in January-May. State media said in June that 3 million hectares of farmland&nbsp;had already suffered from drought.
ARE&nbsp;POWER&nbsp;GRIDS&nbsp;STRESSED?
Heatwaves spur demand&nbsp;for electricity to cool homes, malls&nbsp;and&nbsp;offices, taxing&nbsp;power&nbsp;supply&nbsp;and&nbsp;even triggering blackouts. In June, a first-ever emergency drill was conducted in eastern China to&nbsp;cope&nbsp;with large-scale outages.
Factories also shut when&nbsp;power&nbsp;demand&nbsp;exceeds supply to meet demand&nbsp;from residential&nbsp;and&nbsp;non-industrial users. With drought curbing hydropower&nbsp;output, Yunnan in February ordered a cut of 14% of its output of aluminium obtained from&nbsp;power-intensive electrolysis. In August last year, hydro-dependent Sichuan province mandated&nbsp;power&nbsp;cuts on most industrial users lasting 11 days.
To support base load&nbsp;power&nbsp;demand&nbsp;during spikes&nbsp;and&nbsp;ease the grid's reliance on hydro, China has accelerated approval of new coal mines&nbsp;and&nbsp;coal-fired&nbsp;power&nbsp;plants, which could make it harder for Beijing to achieve its carbon-reduction goals.
Last year, China approved 260 million metric tons of new mining capacity&nbsp;and&nbsp;even reopened mothballed mines. Local governments also approved at least 20.45 gigawatts of new coal&nbsp;power&nbsp;capacity in the first quarter of 2023, more than the whole of 2021.
HOW DEADLY ARE THE RAINS?
Earlier this year, the worst rains in a decade struck wheat&nbsp;fields in central provinces just before the harvest season. That caused early germination of the grain,&nbsp;and&nbsp;15% of the crop was unfit for human consumption. Analysts expect wheat&nbsp;imports this year to top 10 million tons, the&nbsp;highest volume ever.
Floods&nbsp;also&nbsp;threaten&nbsp;rice-growing. The southern province of Hunan, which produces around 13% of&nbsp;China's&nbsp;rice, has been hit by continuous rain since late June. The agriculture ministry warned heavy&nbsp;rainfall&nbsp;could wash away rice pollen&nbsp;and&nbsp;devastate production.
In 2021, the central city of Zhengzhou was hit by nearly a year's worth of&nbsp;rainfall&nbsp;over three days, submerging neighbourhoods&nbsp;and&nbsp;flooding subway tunnels. So far this year, the most&nbsp;intense&nbsp;rain to date was logged by Beihai in southwestern Guangxi region, registering 614.7 millimetres (24.2 inches) over 24 hours.
WHAT IS CHINA DOING?
In 2015, China launched a "sponge city" pilot project to reduce&nbsp;water-logging&nbsp;and&nbsp;to prevent&nbsp;floods, with permeable asphalt&nbsp;and&nbsp;pavements among the potential technological solutions. But the Zhengzhou&nbsp;floods&nbsp;have raised questions about these systems when they are pushed beyond their limits.
In May, officials released plans to build a national network of new canals, reservoirs&nbsp;and&nbsp;storage facilities to strengthen control over&nbsp;water&nbsp;flows&nbsp;and&nbsp;reduce the risk of&nbsp;floods&nbsp;and&nbsp;droughts.
However, experts say this would be expensive&nbsp;and&nbsp;environmentally disruptive,&nbsp;and&nbsp;could leave regions in the south more vulnerable to supply disruptions&nbsp;and&nbsp;later require even more infrastructure.
($1 = 7.2320 yuan)
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(Reporting by Qiaoyi Li, Ethan Wang, Ningwei Qin&nbsp;and&nbsp;Ryan Woo; Additional reporting by&nbsp;Andrew Hayley&nbsp;and&nbsp;David Stanway; Editing by Sonali Paul)

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