People walk across a road near the Drum Tower amid snowfall in Beijing, China December 13, 2023. REUTERS
BEIJING — Gripping cold weather swept across major sections of China on Thursday while many areas in the south will see sharp temperature drops over the next few days, Chinese weather forecasters predicted.
The cold snap is widespread – moving from northern China, where several provinces have already been hit with blizzards to central and southern areas like Guizhou province – and pushing deep into the lower reaches of the Yangtze River Delta area.
“This cold wave is powerful, later this week it will be a big move south,” said meteorological analyst Wang Weiyue, according to CCTV state media.
Northerly winds have drifted into many parts of China, and temperatures will drop, national weather forecasters predicted, with some northeastern cities such as Shenyang and Harbin clocking readings as low as minus 26 to 27 degrees Celsius (minus 17 degrees Fahrenheit) until Dec. 18, in what would be their lowest readings so far this year, according to the national broadcaster CCTV.
Weather charts and maps across social media revealed how rapidly the weather is deteriorating even in the south, with temperatures across swathes of southern provinces falling by more than 14 C or even 20 C.
“Finally know what it means to freeze purple,” wrote a netizen on Weibo, a social media app, referring to the color codes of the coldest areas in the country.
For a second-straight day several areas have seen record-low temperatures. Parts of the Inner Mongolia region, Shaanxi, Jilin, and Liaoning provinces witnessed temperature drops of more than 20 C accompanied by forceful wind gusts, China’s National Meteorological Center (NMC) reported.
Gale warnings were also issued in Xinjiang, western Tibet, Ningxia region, Qinghai province and parts of Inner Mongolia, according to weather forecasters.
The cold forced governments to continue to shut schools. Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province, asked parents to implement home-schooling for kindergarten, primary and junior high school children.