Cold is coming to northern regions

Cold fronts are forecast to affect northern parts of China until Saturday this week, bringing precipitation and clearing up the air pollution around Beijing, authorities said.

According to the National Meteorological Center, a cold front, which entered the country in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region on Sunday, was expected to bring snow or sleet in northern Xinjiang, western Inner Mongolia autonomous region and to the western part of Gansu province.

By 10 am on Monday, some areas of Xinjiang, including Tacheng and Ili prefectures, had received heavy snow, according to China Central Television. Snow accumulated as deep as 1 meter in the Guozigou area of Ili, according to news portal iyaxin.

In addition to a strong breeze, many areas in the north, also including Gansu and Shaanxi provinces, will experience temperature drops of up to 10 C, the center said on Monday.

As the cold air moves eastward, snow and sleet will engulf the eastern parts of Northwest China, as well as the central and eastern parts of Inner Mongolia, northern portions of North China and Northeast China from Wednesday to Saturday, it said.

It added that the eastern part of Northeast China and eastern Gansu province may be hit by heavy snow on Wednesday and Thursday. A temperature decrease of 6 C to 10 C is expected in these regions.

Meanwhile, because of unfavorable meteorological conditions for air pollutant dispersal, the central and southern parts of North China and the Fenhe and Weihe river plains — mostly located in Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces — will be stricken by a bout of haze until Thursday, the center said.

In North China, smog mainly affected the southern parts of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei province cluster on Monday, with mostly light to moderate pollution. The pollution, however, will worsen, both in size, area and density, according to the National Environmental Monitoring Center.

The center said Beijing, as well as Shijiazhuang, Baoding, Tangshan and Langfang in Hebei province, may see heavy air pollution from Tuesday to Thursday because of high humidity and “temperature inversions” that prevent normal churn of the atmosphere.

The haze will gradually clear up from north to south thanks to strong cold air from the north and rainfall from Thursday night, the monitoring center said.

“Cold air may arrive in the northern parts of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cluster on Thursday. But because it’s slow-moving, it won’t carry away the pollutants quickly. Most of the pollutants are expected to be cleared on Friday,” the National Joint Research Center on Air Pollution Causes and Control said in a statement on Monday.

The monitoring center also said sand and dust carried from northeastern Xinjiang may also bring moderate to heavy air pollution in the area until Wednesday.