Although Shanghai has just been battered by snow and is still wrapped in cold, it has just experienced its hottest year in 2007 since the city began to record weather in 1873, with an average temperature of 17.8 degrees Celsius.

The year's average temperature in 2007 is 2 Celsius degrees more than the long-term average, according to the Top 10 Climate Events of 2007 issued by the municipal meteorological bureau on Monday.

"Especially in February, May and July, the monthly average temperature was the highest that has so far been recorded, which was 2.1 to 4.2 degrees Celsius higher than the average", it said.

The bureau recorded 30 days with temperatures of more than 35 degrees Celsius, triple the normal number.

Shanghai's highest temperature in 2007 is 39.6 degrees Celsius, which came on July 29 - Its third highest temperature in history.

Shanghai also records its most polluted day on April 1, when heavy floating dust shrouded the city, according to the bureau.

(Xinhua News Agency February 8, 2008)