Over 400 vehicles stranded by snow in N. China

More than 400 vehicles and an unknown number of people on board were stranded by snow on a national highway since Tuesday afternoon in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

The vehicles were stranded since 3 pm at three sites at the road section in Tongliao City, said local officials.

The road is covered in heavy snow and strong winds have brought the visibility to a very low level, said local officials.

Rescue is underway.

Photo taken on Dec. 15, 2010 shows a tiny snowman standing next to the west lake in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province. Various parts of China, including Hangzhou, embraced the first snow of this winter on Wednesday. [Xinhua]

Heavy snow forecast for China's south

China's meteorological authority said Wednesday heavy snow will hit many parts of the nation's south in the next 24 hours.

Southern parts of Anhui Province, central and southern areas in Zhejiang and Hunan provinces, most regions in Jiangxi Province, and southwestern areas of Fujian Province should expect heavy snow, with some areas likely to get snowstorms, the Central Meteorological Station (CMS) said in a statement on its website.

Temperatures will drop by 6 to 8 degrees Celsius in most areas in Guizhou Province, the central and western parts of Sichuan Province and eastern regions in Yunnan Province in the next 24 hours, the CMS said.

Nationwide, temperatures will return to normal from Friday, said CMS chief forecaster He Lifu.


Is another disastrous winter coming to China?

China's National Meteorological Center alerted central and southeast China to a blizzard on Wednesday as a bitter cold front kept expanding southward, enveloping China in snow and record-low temperatures.

Snows have now covered most of southern China. Even the subtropical Guangdong Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region will see temperatures drops up to 10 degrees centigrade, according to a statement from the center.

A snowfall, starting at 8:45 a.m., has coated Nanchang City, capital of east China's Jiangxi Province, in white. Forecasts say snowstorms will continue to ravage most of Jiangxi until Friday.

With the average temperature having dropped from about 9 to 1.7 degrees centigrade, most parts of central China's Hunan province are being pounded by rain, snow and hail storms.

The weather has also begun to disrupt traffic.

Flights leaving an airport in Jiangxi were canceled as snows affected visibility of pilots. In Hunan, drivers had to slow down to avoid accidents and construction work was halted amid the bitter cold as migrant workers crowded railway stations.

Hunan and Jiangxi are only two of the many provinces and region to the south of the Yangtze River being hit by snowstorms.

The National Meteorological Center forecast temperatures in most parts of China would start to climb on Friday. However, that brings little comfort to people now enduring the bitter cold. "What's more worrisome is that colder days are still ahead of us," said Sun Zheng, a migrant worker in Hunan.

January and February are usually the coldest months in China. It is also the country's busiest traffic season when migrant workers and students head home for family reunions during the Spring Festival Holidays.

The last 40-day travel rush, that ended on March 11, recorded 2.29 billion long-distance bus trips. Also, more than 29 million Chinese traveled by air and over 204 million people traveled by train during the period.

The travel rush had been an ordeal for China's traffic system. It could be disastrous when accompanied by snowstorms.

The carpeting snows in central and southern China have started to remind people of a blizzard in January 2008, which left 129 people dead and caused losses of 151.65 billion yuan (22.7 billion U.S. dollars) in the same area.

On Nov. 29 China's Ministry of Railroad called for railway stations across China to start bracing for the coming Spring Festival travel rush. The rush will start around Jan. 19, 2011.

Meanwhile, many northern Chinese cities, that have already been swept by the cold front, reported the coldest temperature in a decade for this period.

In an extreme case, temperatures in Hulunbuir City in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region dropped to minus 46 degrees centigrade. Beijing also reported a record low temperature on this date in the past 10 years.

Further, ice sheets have been seen off the coast of the Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea in east China as the northern part of the seas have begun to freeze.


Snow blankets roads, runways in Shanghai

Early snow in Shanghai affected air traffic and may cause ice on the road.

The first snowfall this winter in Shanghai on Wednesday afternoon came about 20 days earlier than in past years, said Zhang Ruiyi, premier service officer with the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau.

The city's meteorological observatory issued a yellow warning signal on road icing on Wednesday afternoon, with icy roads possibly affecting traffic.

The snowfall was not heavy but dragged temperatures below 0 C, with predicted further drops to -2 C by Thursday morning, said Zhang.

As many as 12 flights were delayed due to snow at Hongqiao International Airport and Pudong International Airport between noon and 3 pm on Wednesday, and four other flights were canceled.

Highways were not closed but speed limits from 60 km/h to 80 km/h were posted.

The Shanghai Railway Bureau launched a contingency plan to ensure trains were not affected, according to Tao Liping, spokesman with the bureau.

The Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Civil Affairs set up shelters for the homeless and street beggars.

Those who are in need of a shelter may seek help at the shelters in each district.


Most parts of China hit by cold snap

Most parts of China are shivering under a cold spell Tuesday as the nation's meteorological authorities forecast temperatures would further drop by as much as 10 degrees during the next 24 hours.

At 5 p.m. local time, the temperature had only reached minus 8.5 degrees Celsius in the country's capital city of Beijing, the National Meteorological Center (NMC) said.

Meanwhile, under the effects of the cold air, some areas in China's Guangxi, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang saw heavy rainfall beginning Monday as snow hit Shandong, Anhui, and Jiangsu provinces in the east.

In northeastern Liaoning Province, the temperature had fallen by 6-10 degrees as of 5 p.m. Tuesday, compared to one day before.

He Lifu, top weather forecaster for the NMC, said heavy snow would also hit Hubei, Zhejiang and Hunan provinces Tuesday night.

The NMC forecast that as the cold front wears out, temperatures would rise starting Friday in most regions.