BEIJING - China's meteorological authority said Saturday that heavy rains will hit parts of North China over the next three days.

Thundershowers will hit the central and eastern parts of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, as well as the northeastern and northern parts of China and areas along the Yellow and Huaihe rivers, the China Meteorological Administration said in a statement on its website.

From Sunday night to Monday, heavy rains will pound parts of Inner Mongolia, Beijing and Tianjin, and the provinces of Liaoning, Hebei, Shandong and Jiangsu.

Persistent rains starting from July 14 have hit all of North China's 11 provincial-level regions, including Beijing, Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and Liaoning. Floods, landslides and hail triggered by the rains have killed 12 people over the past eight days, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said Friday.

The weather agency also said that a heat wave will hit South China and parts of Inner Mongolia, Gansu province and the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region over the next three days, with temperatures predicted to reach 37 degrees Celsius.

The administration said in a separate statement that the National Meteorological Center issued a high temperature alert for south China Saturday morning as a result of the coming heat wave.