Cold snap brings brisk winds from Siberia
By Wang Ying (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-03-12 06:10

A drastic temperature plunge and a bone-chilling wind have driven away the Spring-like temperatures that reigned throughout northern China over the past two days.

A Siberian cold front sent the mercury plunging as much as 10 degrees in northern China last week, meteorologists said.

Accompanied by strong winds, Beijing experienced a sudden temperature decline yesterday.

The daytime high temperature only reached zero yesterday, while the nighttime low was 7 C below zero.

Sandstorms hit the eastern part of Gansu Province in Northwest China and western part of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the north over the past two days, sending people scrambling for cover.

Meanwhile, the northern part of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in Northwest China, the northern part of the Tibet Autonomous Region in Southwest China and Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces in Northeast China also reported snow flurries.

The strong cold front also brought with it heavy rainfall in southern China, especially in Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces.

Like many Beijingers, Huang Ying, a market vendor in Beijing's Chaoyang District, feels this winter has been among the coldest she has experienced in recent years.

"Today's strong wind blew away my advert board and damaged my food stand," said Huang, who had to close down her stand for repairs.

"The grocery market saw fewer customers this winter than in previous years due to all this cold weather," Huang said. "It's been tough on us."

This winter is a bit colder than the previous ones, but still may not go into the record books as technically a "cold" winter, said Zhang Qiang at the National Climate Centre.

Average temperatures this winter from December to February are 0.9 degrees lower than last winter, but almost the same on average as those in the past several decades, Zhang said.

"However, for people who have gotten accustomed to warm winters in recent years, the change to these sudden temperature drops is a bit hard to take," Zhang said.

Statistics show that the average temperatures early this month have been about 10 degrees lower than the same period last year.

While temperatures are expected to surge gradually over the weekend, forecasters are warning that several additional mercury decling can be expected as more cold air sweeps in from northern China.

(China Daily 03/12/2005 page3)

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