Hot questions asked in bid to solve climate conundrum

The word "extreme" is a leading candidate to best describe summer in China this year, when an average temperature of 22 C was experienced, the highest recorded in the country since 1961.

While there was also limited rainfall nationwide, with drought affecting some northwestern areas, Beijing witnessed its heaviest downpours since 2012.

In recent years, extremely hot summers in China have been followed by bitter winters, so the big question is whether the coming months will be exceptionally cold.

Zhu Dingzhen, a retired chief expert at the China Meteorological Administration's Public Meteorological Service Center, said it is hard to give a definite answer, but there is a high probability that this winter will be a tough one.

"There is no direct link between temperatures in summer and winter, but when the former are extremely high, that is a sign that the entire climate system is turbulent, meaning there is a much higher possibility of the latter being extremely low," Zhu said.