During the hottest summer in history, even people in Northeast China couldn't bear it and rushed to buy air conditioners.

Before the Lesser Heat, the temperature in Changchun reached 36 degrees Celsius.

In the impression of Rou Rou, a local in Changchun, the summers in Changchun have never been so sweltering. Even during the dog days, the temperature has never exceeded 35 degrees Celsius. "It's only hot for a few days a year, so locals rarely buy air conditioners. An air cooler is enough."

Now, the thing Rou Rou regrets the most recently is that she didn't listen to her husband and buy an air conditioner in May. Now, not only has she missed the discounts, but she also can't sleep at night because the air conditioner installation has been delayed.

Before this year, air conditioners were not considered a necessity in Northeast China. According to the China Household Survey Yearbook 2023, the number of air conditioners per 100 households in Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang provinces was 58.6, 17.7, and 13.3 respectively. In contrast, the number of air conditioners installed per 100 households in Guangdong Province can reach 229.1, which means each family can install about two air conditioners. Some netizens even conducted an informal survey and said that the proportion of Northeast families with air conditioners is lower than that with cars.

With the arrival of high temperatures, many Northeast people are suffering because there are no air conditioners at home.

Why is it so hot in Northeast China?

Perhaps the first to suffer from the lack of air conditioners were some college students in Northeast China. Since the second half of June, various funny videos shot by college students have appeared on social media. Some students were soaking in the pool shouting, "President, I'm so hot that I can't sleep," while others were sleeping in tents in the basement or by the lake in groups...

Lanka, a sophomore at a 985 university, and her roommates can only sleep on the floor with the door open every night to relieve the heat. Although they are using cool mats, it doesn't help. They can only sleep for about four hours a day and are always woken up by the heat at 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning. Sometimes, Lanka takes out the fan she bought last year, but since it's so hot, the fan only blows hot air. Some students, having no other way to deal with the heat, can only use the most primitive method to "make a homemade air conditioner" by putting ice in front of the fan to blow out cold air. Some students couldn't stand the heat and went to stay in hotels. Lanka said that during that time, the hotels near the school charging 200 yuan per night were fully booked every night.

This summer, many parts of the country have been hit by extreme high temperatures. Liu Yuan, a senior engineer in the Meteorological Disaster Risk Management Office of the National Climate Center, also said in an interview with Evening News that the high - temperature weather this year is quite prominent, and the first high - temperature process occurred from May 19th to 21st, more than half a month earlier than usual. As of July 8th, extreme high temperatures have been recorded at 147 national meteorological stations, and the high - temperature records at 13 national meteorological stations have been broken. Northeast China has also experienced a rare high - temperature wave since June 24th, and the temperature in some plain areas has even exceeded 35°C.

Still from the movie When the Devil Calls Your Name, image source: Internet

Jiang Yiling from Harbin can clearly feel that it's hotter this year than in previous years. As someone who can tolerate heat relatively well, she used to be able to sleep with the window closed even during the dog days. But this year, she has to sleep with the window open before the dog days start. The heat - sensitive elderly at home are even more suffering. Since the house is not well - ventilated from north to south, the elderly can't sleep at night because of the heat. Coupled with high blood pressure and heart disease, the elderly have felt uncomfortable with their hearts for several consecutive days.

Li Xinyue, who works in the South, also heard her parents in a county in Changchun say on the phone that "it's getting hotter and hotter in Northeast China." The heat makes the old couple have no appetite for food and unable to sleep well. They blow the fan at home every day until their necks hurt, but her mother still sweats all over due to the heat. In Li Xinyue's memory, during the summer vacations in college, it was only hot for a few days at most in a year, and "it could be endured by just blowing the fan."

Rou Rou even specifically searched online for the previous temperatures in Northeast China and found that the highest temperature in Changchun last July was only 32 degrees Celsius. Looking at the 36 - degree temperature on her phone, she was a bit confused. "I remember it wasn't like this before. Why is it so hot so early this year? It's really killing me not being able to sleep at night."

The highest temperature in Changchun reached 36 degrees Celsius

On Xiaohongshu, netizens in Northeast China are collectively complaining about the weather this year. Some people say they are so hot that they can't breathe and even have to make a "decision against the ancestors" by not covering their navels when sleeping; some people's mobile phones have come unglued due to the heat, so they have to buy a small electric fan for their phones; some people say their cats are panting due to the heat, and it's still too hot even with three fans on; some people have even fainted from heatstroke, saying "their whole bodies were numb, sweating like rain, unable to move their hands and feet, with a tight throat and short of breath, and they had to stay in the emergency room overnight."

The DNA of Northeast people as jokers is also unleashed at this moment. A netizen from Jilin described how hot the weather is like this: "I was in a hurry to go to work in the morning and didn't go to the toilet at home. I drove for 10 minutes without turning on the air conditioner. When I went to the toilet at the unit, I found I was constipated! It's like being dried from the inside out!"

"There are too many installations to handle"

A significant chain reaction brought about by the high temperatures is that air conditioners in Northeast China have been sold out like crazy.

First, air conditioners on the Internet were out of stock one after another. On the third consecutive night when she was woken up by the heat, Rou Rou irritably picked up her phone and went to JD.com to buy an air conditioner. As a result, she found that almost all the well - known brands were out of stock. Even some air conditioners that could be purchased were pre - order items, and the delivery time was uncertain. Looking at the prompts saying "Out of stock in the selected area", she got even more irritated and hotter.

The situation of out - of - stock in physical stores is also not to be underestimated.

On July 15th, when we visited some direct - sale stores of air - conditioner brands in Shenyang, we found that air conditioners priced below 2000 yuan were all out of stock. Especially well - known brands like Haier and Midea, only some mid - to high - end models were in stock, with prices above 3000 yuan. "It's the same all over Shenyang," a Xiaomi clerk told the "Post - 90s Research Institute". "This year, people really can't sleep at night without an air conditioner. There were people who didn't like to use air conditioners before, but this year they have to. So the orders are quite concentrated."

The entrance of a store in Shenyang is filled with summer - cooling products

Almost every air - conditioner brand is in the same situation. According to Jiadianwang, since July, the sales of Haier air conditioners in the three northeastern provinces have been continuously increasing. The retail sales in Jilin increased by 355% year - on - year, in Heilongjiang by 333% year - on - year, and in Liaoning by 518% year - on - year. Midea's sales in Heilongjiang and Jilin also increased by 356%.

However, even if there are air conditioners in stock, consumers can't immediately enjoy the coolness brought by the air conditioners because the air - conditioner installers are too busy. The Xiaomi clerk said that now, people have to queue up for air - conditioner installation, and it's uncertain how long they have to wait. In areas with a high density of new houses, they may have to wait about 10 days for an installer to come. "A customer made an appointment with an installer yesterday, and the installer said he still had about 30 air conditioners to install."

Netizens waiting for air - conditioner installation 

Even if you are willing to pay extra, you may not be able to make an appointment with an installer.

A netizen posted on Xiaohongshu, urgently looking for an air - conditioner installer who could install the air conditioner on the same day. A few hours later, after saying that she had contacted an installer, nearly 20 people in the comment section asked her to recommend the installer. But the installer said he didn't want to take on more orders. "There are too many installations to handle."

"Last week, the air - conditioner sales were very hot, and the installers simply couldn't handle all the work," an employee at an electrical appliance store said. Since the weather started getting hot, air conditioners have become hard to find. "It's always like this. If it's not hot, no one is in a hurry to buy an air conditioner."

Even some customers who chose to return their orders because they had to wait too long finally couldn't stand the high temperatures and came back to the store to buy air conditioners again.

This is the case with Li Xinyue's parents. After hearing that her parents couldn't sleep because of the heat, Li Xinyue decided to buy an air conditioner for them. Her parents initially refused, saying they could endure it. But after just a few days, they couldn't stand it anymore and told their daughter, "Maybe we should still get an air conditioner." After finding that there were no air conditioners in stock online, Li Xinyue asked her parents to go directly to the mall to buy one. But when her father went to the mall and learned that the installation would have to wait for half a month, he decided not to install it, saying "we can endure it a little longer." But last Sunday, her father couldn't stand the heat anymore and spent 2000 yuan to buy an air conditioner, saying that he would just put his name on the waiting list.

To improve the installation efficiency, many brands have even dispatched air - conditioner installers to Northeast China for support. On July 7th, the vice - president of Xiaomi Group and the president of the China region said on Weibo that Xiaomi's service department has urgently organized installation engineers from all over the country to go to Northeast China and Inner Mongolia; JD.com has also dispatched 500 air - conditioner installers to support Northeast China, and the first batch of installers arrived in some cities in Heilongjiang on July 9th; Midea has also sent 150 groups of after - sales engineers from Shijiazhuang, Jinan, and Zhengzhou to support Northeast China.

The weather is on a roller - coaster ride

It's not just Northeast China. This year, extreme climates are being experienced all over the country.

First, the temperature has been changing like a roller - coaster. Before the first lunar month was over, there was a large - scale warming across the country, and the temperature in some southern areas even approached 30 degrees Celsius. Then, the cold snap came again, and spring failed to arrive.

By the middle and late May, there was a large - scale rainfall across the country. In some areas, heavy rain caused disasters. Flash floods occurred in Guilin, Guangxi, and a landslide happened in Bijie, Guizhou. Some young people in some cities even sighed that they "could see the sea in the inland."

In June, the country was hit by high - temperature waves again. During this period, known as the "hottest summer in history," the temperatures in many northern cities exceeded 40 degrees Celsius. Genhe City in the northern part of Daxing'anling, known as the "coldest place in China," even experienced a high - temperature of 39.5 degrees Celsius at the end of June. Moreover, the number of heat - stroke patients received by 120 ambulances in various places has increased significantly, and official media in various places have also reported consecutive confirmed cases of heatstroke.

The China Climate Change Blue Book (2025) released on June 27th this year also points out that China is a sensitive area and a significantly affected area by global climate change. The warming rate is higher than the global average during the same period, and extreme weather and climate events are becoming more frequent and intense. In 2024, monitoring indicators such as China's annual average temperature, the ablation loss of Glacier No. 1 at the headwaters of the Urumqi River in the Tianshan Mountains, and the sea - level along the Chinese coast all reached new highs.

In addition to the successive data and facts, people can also clearly feel the abnormality this year.

Jiang Yiling can clearly feel that the weather in Harbin this year is abnormal. In previous years, on May 1st, people in Harbin only needed to wear a T - shirt and a single coat to go out. But this year, it was very cold on May 1st, and she had to wear a woolen coat or a fleece - lined coat. She and her family were also wondering, "Why is it getting warm so late this year?" At that time, Jiang Yiling even had some "expectations" that since the dog days this year were only 30 days, 10 days shorter than usual, the summer would surely be more bearable.

On social media, there are also discussions everywhere about the abnormal weather this year. Some netizens question, "Doesn't anyone think the climate is very strange now?" The high temperatures and strong winds keep cycling, "as if it's the self - protection of the atmosphere." But after repeated high - temperature periods, "it seems that the earth can't save itself anymore." Some netizens can clearly feel the trend of global warming compared with the climate during the same period last year, but