Cold snap sweeps across country

Snow has blanketed southern parts of China since Sunday and temperatures in some northern parts reached lows of-37 C on Monday after a cold snap swept across the country.

On Monday, the National Meteorological Center continued a blue warning for low temperatures nationwide, the lower level in the two-tier system.

The center issued its first-ever blue alert for low temperatures on Sunday as cold weather was forecast to linger.

In some South and Southwest China provinces, temperatures dropped by between 6 C and 8 C over 24 hours from Sunday to Monday, the center said.

In Guizhou and Hunan provinces and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, temperatures were forecast to be 7 C lower than normal years on Tuesday, the center said.

By 7 am on Monday, up to 22 centimeters of accumulated snow covered Tongren, Guizhou province, and Huaihua, Hunan province, the center said.

Zhu Dingzhen, a meteorologist from the China Meteorological Administration, said: "The heavy snow is concentrated in the southern areas instead of northern provinces because the cold air mass met warm and humid air in the south, more easily causing rain and snow."

In a video on the website of The-Paper.cn, icicles covered seaside handrails, light poles and stone benches on Saturday in Weihai, Shandong province. The local meteorological service said on Saturday that the lowest temperatures in most areas of the province had fallen below -8 C.

The center said that the temperature drops were due to the latest cold snap that began last week. But the cold air mass was forecast to dwindle and temperatures in South China were expected to rise, although very slowly.

Zhang Mingying, senior engineer of the Beijing Meteorological Service, told Beijing Youth Daily that this would be the last cold wave this year.

"Actually, the temperature drops over the past week were not as much as in November. However, due to the overlapping effect of several cold air masses, this cold wave made people feel particularly cold," he was quoted as saying.