A heat wave blasted provinces across China with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius Wednesday, meteorologists said.

The temperature exceeded 35 degrees Celsius in many regions, including the northern cities of Beijing and Tianjin, provinces of Hebei and Shanxi and Inner Mongolia autonomous Region, eastern provinces of Shandong, Jiangsu and Anhui, the central Hubei and Henan provinces, and the northwestern regions of Shaanxi, Ningxia and Xinjiang, the National Meteorological Center said.

Beijing had the most "heated" senior middle school entrance exam Wednesday in the past six years as the temperature hit 37 degrees Celsius, the Beijing Meteorological Bureau said.

It was so hot that "it seemed to be 10 a.m. when it was 6 a.m.," said Beijinger Sun Xiao.

The heat exacerbated a drought in southwest China's Sichuan Province. In all, 117 counties and cities had experienced drought this year and dry weather persisted in 28 counties and cities, said Chen Youshu, deputy director of the Sichuan Provincial Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

The maximum temperature reached 39 degrees Celsius Tuesday in Ya'an City of Sichuan, said the Ya'an Meteorological Bureau

People, livestock and crops had been affected since June 17 and20.5 million yuan (about 3 million U.S. dollars) in disaster relief funds had been distributed to 10 seriously affected counties and cities.

Rain fell June 24 to 26 in western and southern Sichuan and more rain was expected in late June to relieve the drought, Yu said.

Source:Xinhua

In pictures: Scorching heatwave sweeps China