Record snowfall wreaks havoc for commuters
Nanjing issues a rare red alert as flights, trains canceled nationwide
Heavy snow has swept cities across China since Wednesday night, with snow and rain in some areas setting records for January.
The snowfall in six cities in Hubei province, including Xiangyang, Suizhou and Shiyan, has matched or even surpassed the previous record.
Up to 10 centimeters of snow has fallen in 11 cities across the province.
Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, raised its orange alert for blizzards to red — the highest level — in Pukou and Luhe districts around 2 pm on Thursday.
It is the first time in a decade the city has issued a red alert, which means the snow is expected to reach a depth of 25 cm.
The National Meteorological Center issued another orange alert — the secondhighest warning — on Thursday morning, forecasting that for 24 hours starting 2 pm on Thursday blizzards could result in up to 16 millimeters of precipitation from melted snow in Anhui and Jiangsu provinces.
Snow in some areas of Shaanxi, Henan and Hubei provinces may reach 15 to 33 cm, according to the authorities.
The cold, wet weather has created hazardous conditions for motorists and pedestrians in many cities.
Several high-speed trains from Shanghai were canceled on Thursday, including services to Beijing, Tianjin and Chongqing, while some were terminated at Nanjing.
Bullet trains from Beijing to Wuhan, Xi’an and Handan were also affected, and those passing through Henan and Sichuan provinces were either delayed or canceled.
Passengers have been told they can get a refund on their tickets without a service charge within 30 days. The network operator, China Railway Corp, said it is also organizing workers to repair equipment and guarantee services.
Bus services have also been disrupted. In Nanjing, drivers with less than three years of experience were removed from duty on Thursday, with only veteran drivers allowed to helm city buses.
Highways were closed in Jiangsu, Henan, Shaanxi and Hubei provinces. Nine airports across China also experienced large-scale delays, while two — in Shandong province’s Jining and Anhui’s Fuyang — were closed.
Some cities have suspended classes at kindergartens and schools. Hefei, the capital of Anhui, has opted to close schools from Friday to Wednesday.
The ceilings of several bus stations in Hefei collapsed on Thursday morning, causing at least one death and more than 10 injuries.
“The stations have been cordoned off and bus company workers have been sent to clean the snow from other ceilings,” an employee surnamed Zhang with the Hefei bus company said.
Jia Jianyin, an assistant professor of atmospheric sciences at Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, said compared with northern China, the snow in other areas — including Nanjing — melts faster due to the higher land surface temperature.
“The snow in the north is also thicker due to its dry air,” she said. “The snow in cities will melt quickly due to the urban heat island effect.”
The National Meteorological Center lifted the orange alert at 6 pm on Thursday, saying fewer areas will see heavy snow on Thursday night and Friday.
Zhou Lihua and Zhu Lixin contributed to this story.