Saturday, 24 January 2009
Freezing weather hobbles holiday travel
The freezing weather that has gripped much of the mainland in the past few days - disrupting the plans of hundreds of thousands of travellers rushing home for the Lunar New Year - will last for another day or two and continue to move south, meteorologists say.
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Freezing weather hobbles holiday travel
Shi Jiangtao in Beijing
24 January 2009
The freezing weather that has gripped much of the mainland in the past few days - disrupting the plans of hundreds of thousands of travellers rushing home for the Lunar New Year - will last for another day or two and continue to move south, meteorologists say.
The cold spell is expected to lift just in time for the holidays, and a repeat of the severe snowstorm that ravaged southern China a year ago is unlikely, experts at the National Meteorological Centre said yesterday.
Zhai Panmao , head of the centre’s Prediction and Disaster Mitigation Department, ruled out the possibility of another massive snowstorm, saying the weather this year was very different from last year.
“This year there is much less snow, as everyone knows, and incidents of freezing cold and icy rain and snow have been restricted to certain areas, and are short-lasting,” he said.
Last year the worst blizzards in five decades killed at least 129 people and affected millions more, paralysing traffic, ravaging communications and cutting power and food supplies. Those struggling to return home faced a nightmare, and the government was embarrassed after snowstorms brought the country to a halt.
Mr. Zhai and the centre’s spokesman, Yu Xinwen , tried hard yesterday to ease concerns that the cold weather would spoil the Lunar New Year holiday. “It will be good for travelling during the ‘golden week’ and I think ... it is a good opportunity to enjoy good weather and boost consumption,” Mr. Yu said.
But their upbeat forecasts were of little help to the thousands whose journeys home have already been disrupted by heavy snow and icy rain.
Temperatures have plunged by eight to 14 degrees Celsius in the past three days in the north and west, because of a strong cold front from Russia, which coincided with the peak travel period before the festival, Xinhua said.
The airport in Mudanjiang city, in Heilongjiang, was closed for nearly a day until early yesterday morning due to heavy snow, while 30 flights were delayed at Shenyang airport in Liaoning province on Thursday, leaving thousands stranded.
Thick fog delayed dozens of flights in Hubei and Sichuan and the bad weather closed dozens of major toll roads in Liaoning, Inner Mongolia and Hubei.
Low temperatures and strong winds caused chaos at ports in Shanghai, with up to 100 ships prevented from getting in or out.
The mercury in Beijing dropped to as low as minus 14 degrees at night this week, and the usually crowded shopping streets before the holidays were almost deserted shortly after dark due to the coldest temperatures in years and strong winds.
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