BEIJING - Unseasonably cold weather and blizzards hit the north-eastern part of China on Monday, forcing hundreds of flights to be rescheduled and closing schools as several cities issued heightened weather alerts and warned people to stay indoors.
With snowfall of as much as 25cm, over 90 per cent of expressway entrances in Jilin province had been closed as of 7pm, state television CCTV said.
In the country’s northernmost province Heilongjiang, the local railway operator halted 51 passenger lines over safety concerns.
A gymnasium in Heilongjiang’s Jiamusi city collapsed, trapping three inside, according to CCTV.
State-run Jimu News said there were children at the venue at the time of the incident. It is unclear if the collapse was related to the snowfall, the report said. A rescue operation is underway.
Schools, kindergartens, and off-campus training institutions in most parts of Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang, will remain suspended on Tuesday, after they were cancelled on Monday, CCTV said.
China’s national weather forecaster renewed its orange blizzard alert - the second highest tier of its colour-coded warning system - at 6pm, as more snow is expected from Monday night to Tuesday in parts of Jilin and Heilongjiang.
Earlier on Monday, 405 flights were cancelled at Harbin Taiping International Airport, according to data from third-party travel app Flight Master.
Many flights were also cancelled in Jilin and Liaoning provinces, and in the Inner Mongolia region, Flight Master showed.
Video from a local newspaper showed travellers stranded in a railway station as heavy snow lashed Jilin’s Changchun city, with some trains from the city suspended.
“The season changed outside overnight,” a netizen from Heilongjiang complained on Weibo, China’s popular social media platform.
Provinces and cities upgraded weather response protocols, with heavy snowfall expected in parts of Inner Mongolia, and Hebei, Jilin and Liaoning provinces, China Daily reported.
On Monday, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning and Jilin provinces also suspended schools.
Late on Sunday, Heilongjiang issued a red alert – the country’s highest weather advisory – as cities in the province were expected to receive 20mm to 40mm of precipitation from Sunday evening to Monday evening, according to Chinese weather forecasters, China Daily reported.
The Central Meteorological Observatory said some areas could see 8cm to 10cm of snow, and temperatures in many regions would drop sharply.
Weather forecasters kept orange alerts for blizzards in several areas, while China’s National Meteorological Centre issued an orange alert for blizzards and a blue alert for cold waves and strong wind, Global Times reported.
China has a four-tier colour-coded weather alert system, with red being the highest, followed by orange, yellow and blue.
In Harbin, social media video footage showed residents battling gale-force winds and sliding and stumbling as they made their way down icy streets.
The cold forced governments in Beijing and Tianjin to start making preparations to supply heat earlier than usual, according to city government notices.
Over the past week, northern China has experienced unseasonably odd contrasts in weather, from smog to logging the second-warmest October in decades, and then a sharp drop in temperatures at the weekend.
The Central Meteorological Administration said most of the north-east this week is expected to see temperatures dive to single digits or below freezing as cold air moves east and south. REUTERS
