Sunday's rainfall in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality brought cooler temperatures and relief to residents, but the drought plaguing the region will continue as no further precipitation is expected in the next few days.

Peak temperatures in the urban area of the municipality dropped to 34 C yesterday, the coolest in two months.

Temperatures across the municipality plummeted by 6 to 8 C, said Liu De, director of Chongqing Meteorological Station.

The region is being plagued by the severest drought in 50 years, with temperatures in most areas topping 40 C before yesterday's rainfall.

Qijiang County, one of the hardest-hit areas, situated 50 kilometres away from downtown Chongqing, witnessed a record high of 44.5 C last Wednesday.

"Although the sweltering weather has become more moderate, it still remains unknown when the extreme dryness can be alleviated as there is no rainfall expected in the next days," Liu said.

He added the next three days will be cloudy for most parts of municipality, which will help artificial rainfall efforts.

The drought has left more than 7.8 million people and 7.3 million cattle in great shortage of drinking water, according to the Office of Flood Control and Drought Relief of the municipality.

More than 1.3 million hectares of cropland have been affected, and losses have reached more than 4 billion yuan (US$ 500 million), the office said.

Source: China Daily