New cold wave puts travel on ice
- Source: Global Times
- [01:51 January 20 2010]
- Comments
By Fu Wen
A new cold wave from Mongolia put many regions of China in the deep freeze Tuesday.
Temperatures were expected to dip by as much as 20 C in the next three days and massive rainfalls were predicted along with cold air, China National Radio reported Tuesday.
The National Meteorological Center (NMC) Tuesday issued a severe weather warning, alerting ships to dense fog, high waves and strong sea winds.
Heavy fog in the morning will affect traffic in most of the central and eastern provinces of China, as well as the Sichuan Basin," said Lin Jian, chief forecaster of NMC.
The National Marine Environment Forecast Center predicted that sea ice in the Liaodong Bay in Northeast China's Liaoning Province would cover an area 75 nautical miles long, with ice accumulations up to 40 centimeters within three days. Huge waves kicked up by strong sea winds will threaten ships at sea and seafood beds.
In Northwestern China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, 1.25 million people have been struggling with heavy snow this winter. Some 122 flights have been cancelled or delayed by heavy snow at Urumqi International Airport on Monday, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
Some business operations were also paralyzed by the cold weather.
"We decided to shut down the factory today because it is not safe for our staff living in the city to come to work in heavy snow," manager Qin Fenming of Tianshan Automobile Works in Urumqi told the Global Times Tuesday.
The Xinjiang government has spent more than 80 million yuan ($11 million) to help local people shovel out from the snow drifts and stay warm.
Guo Tiancai, a professor from Henan Agriculture University, told the Xinhua Daily Telegraph on Monday that some wheat crops may be damaged by the coming cold wave in Henan Province.
