Abstract: Recent years have seen an exceptionally large number of heat extremes in large- and medium-sized cities around China under global warming, some causing major human suffering and economic damage. The latest data from the China Meteorological Administration show that Fuzhou has become "the first furnace", according to experiencing the largest number of high temperature days, which has triggered intensive discussion. The present study compares the heat in Fuzhou with that of the traditional "four big furnaces"(Chongqing, Wuhan, Nanchang, and Nanjing), in terms of several extreme heat indices(EHIs)-high temperature days, extreme maximum temperature, mean high temperature, and heat index-based on daily observed data. The results indicate that the heat in Fuzhou was not particularly strong in the 1960s and 1970s, but in recent decades, Fuzhou has become one of the hottest cities in China following two stages of increase around the late 1970s and early 1990s. Almost all the extreme heat indices, except the extreme maximum temperature, reveal Fuzhou outpaced the other four cities during the last decade. The EHIs of Fuzhou experienced an abrupt climatic change around 2000, which was associated with the decadal variability of atmospheric circulation over East Asia. The lower horizontal and vertical temperature advection and westward extension of the subtropical high can largely explain the intensive and frequent heat extremes in Fuzhou during the past decade.