Hot enough for ya?

If you haven't noticed (perhaps you are a human ice cube?) it's hot out. Really hot. Today's forecast features a 36C high, which is 97F to the Americans in the audience, plus another 10-13 degrees for the heat index. Yesterday the mercury hit 39.6C, making it the hottest Shanghai day in 63 years.

How hot is that, you ask?

So hot that authorities announced put the city's heat-threat level at an orange alert. (it's not just terrorists getting color-coded alerts, anymore) This means that the risk of sunstroke and heatstroke has dramatically increased (the Shanghai Daily reports that hospitalizations are up 19%) and the entire city is at risk for black-outs given the enormous quantity of electricity being sucked into every air conditioner, fan, and ice cube tray in Shanghai.

The city's Labor and Social Security Bureau is requiring employers to provide a 10-yuan daily bonus to all employees who work outdoors, a "heat allowance" for these sweltering, heat-stroke-inducing and extra-liquid-requiring days.

Heat related-catastrophes like floods and drought have prompted the China Daily is breaking out surfer slang to describe the weather:

Floods and drought continued to play havoc last week, raising the death toll across the country, with experts blaming the freaky weather conditions on global warming. [emphasis ours. duh.]

...and the drunks are going wild! Quote from the Shanghai Daily:

Hot tempers and cold beer are proving to be a dangerous combination for police, as several officers have been attacked by drunks over the past few weeks, including a 60-year-old woman who bit two cops.

Apparently the street-fighting method of choice among heat-deranged drunks is a swift kick to policeman crotch:

Police had to use pepper spray to end the attack after one woman bit an officer's hand and kicked another in the crotch.

But don't try it yourself; it's a highly punishable offense:

In early hours of June 12, a woman got into a loud argument with her boyfriend after drinking. Her neighbor called police.

When police arrived, the boyfriend kicked one in the crotch. The officer urinated blood for several days after the incident. The boyfriend, whom police would only identify by the surname Han, was sentenced to six months in jail.

And in Tibet, they're wearing furs (not that they necessarily want to; in a bid to defy the anti-fur Dalai Lama, PRC officials are requiring Tibet festival performers to don traditional fur garbs, despite years of discouraging the practice). It's only 13C in the Roof of the World. We're moving there.

Picture via Yahoo! Weather