Warm, muggy weather will continue to grip Shanghai over the next couple days, but a cold front slipping down from the north is expected to cut the heat and sweep the city with rain later in the week.

Typhoon Hagupit could also add to the wet conditions, the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau said yesterday.

The high will remain above 30 degrees Celsius today and tomorrow under cloudy skies. The mercury should dip to around 29 degrees on Thursday and fall 5 to 6 degrees from Friday into the weekend, yielding a maximum temperature of 25 degrees, the bureau said.

Forecasters are now closely watching this year's 14th typhoon, which is moving northwest toward Taiwan and getting stronger.

"It's hard to say now whether the typhoon will affect the city," said Man Liping, a forecaster with the bureau.

Hagupit, which means "to whip" in the Philippines, is expected to strike the Chinese mainland at Guangzhou.

(Shanghai Daily September 23, 2008)