Beijing digs out after major snow

lostinblue · January 5, 2010

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BEIJING (AFP) – Schools were shut down, flights delayed and traffic snarled in Beijing on Monday following two days of heavy snow in north China, with even more frigid weather forecast.

Up to 30 centimetres (12 inches) of snow fell in the capital and nearby Tianjin on Saturday and Sunday, the Central Meteorological Administration reported -- the biggest snowfall in January in the region in more than 50 years.

Although snow was not forecast in the capital in the coming days, snowstorms were expected in northeast China and eastern Shandong province Monday as people returned to work following the New Year holiday, the administration said.

A Siberian cold front meanwhile could bring historic low temperatures of between minus 20 and minus 32 degrees Celsius (minus four and -26 Fahrenheit) to Hebei province and Inner Mongolia on Tuesday and Wednesday, it said.

Temperatures in Beijing were expected to drop to minus 16 degrees Celsius on Monday, the coldest in the capital in decades, the China Daily reported.

In China's coldest region of Heilongjiang province, the mercury has already plummeted to minus 36 Celsius, the paper said.

More than 3,500 schools in Beijing and Tianjin were forced to shut their doors on Monday, giving more than 2.2 million students an extra day of New Year's holiday, state media reported.

At Beijing's international airport -- where nearly 1,200 flights were cancelled or delayed on Sunday -- workers had cleared the runways and the situation was returning to normal, an airport spokesman told AFP.

More than 100 flights on Monday were delayed and two dozen cancelled as of 9:00 am (0100 GMT), the spokesman said, adding that workers needed to de-ice the snow-covered planes that were unable to take off over the weekend.

Up to 30 highways in Beijing and the surrounding regions were still closed to traffic or only partially opened on Monday, the China News Service reported.

Inner city roads in the capital remained icy and covered with snow Monday, but traffic was flowing, albeit at a slow pace. The city has mobilised 300,000 people to clear the snow, the China Daily reported.

The nation's rail network was operating normally, but long-distance bus services in north China were disrupted, the paper said.

The frigid air from the north was also expected to send temperatures plummeting below the freezing mark in much of central China, where heavy fog could cause problems for air and road travellers, the weather bureau said.