China's Yangtze river shrinks as heatwave, drought threaten crops

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The Yangtze's middle and lower reaches have faced temperatures in excess of 40 degrees Celsius over the past month, with experts blaming climate change-induced variations in the western Pacific subtropical high, a major determinant of summer weather throughout east Asia.

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Rainfall in the Yangtze river drainage area fell about 30 per cent in July and is 60 per cent lower than normal in August, with the river's tributaries "significantly lower" than historical levels, according to the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission.

The Poyang lake in central China's Jiangxi province, which plays a major role in regulating Yangtze water flows in the summer, has shrunk to levels normally seen during the winter dry season after a 50 per cent decline in rain in July.

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China normally releases water from the Three Gorges reservoir to relieve drought on the Yangtze but downstream outflows are half the level of a year earlier, official data showed.

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