An early-season snowstorm blanketed much of northern China including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Inner Mongolia and Liaoning, prompting highway closures and flight and train cancellations and delays.
Temperatures plunged to freezing and below as a cold front moved from west to east. A steady, blowing snow fell Sunday in Tianjin, Beijing after hitting parts of Inner Mongolia and other western regions the previous day.
The National Meteorological Center issued a red alert for snowstorms, the highest level in China's four-tier warning system. Accumulations of more than 30 centimeters were forecast in some areas.
COVID-19-affected regions will operate special snow and ice shoveling standards -snow in the epidemic-related enclosed and controlled area will be stacked and dissipated on the spot in the enclosed area, and it is not allowed to be transported out of the area, according to the Beijing Municipal Management Committee.
Temperatures in the north and northeast nosedived, pushing temperatures down by as much as 16 C. Meteorologists forecast frequent cold waves this winter, although there will not be a repeat of the 2008 winter storm that ravaged southern parts of China.
Meteorologists said the cold wave will continue south, and temperatures nationwide will remain low for the next 10 days.
The climate phenomenon known as La Niña brought the unusually early snow, said meteorologists. Zhao Huiqiang, an official from the CMA, said that under the influence of La Niña, China will suffer frequent cold waves this winter.