Shanghai sees rare number of rainy days

For people in Shanghai, sunshine is something many are missing as over the past two months or so it has been rainy for 38 days.

Local meteorological authorities said Friday the number of rainy days is the second highest in Shanghai's 145-year meteorological history, only days behind the record of 45 days that occurred about a century ago between 1918 and 1919.

The trend is not about to come to an end though, with meteorologists forecasting more rainfall in the days to come.

Yang Yawei, an expert with Shanghai Meteorological Service, said the main reason for the phenomenon is that a fully fledged El Nino -- the periodic warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean, often bringing rainfall changes -- moved to the middle of the Pacific Ocean instead of more eastern regions.

The warmer conditions of China's adjacent sea and weak activity of cold air have also contributed to the weather, Yang said.

In the next 10 days, rainfall will continue to play a major role in Shanghai. The rainy days are forecast to stay until Sunday when it could turn cloudy and continue to hit the municipality in next week.