2023-12-21 13:42:35
China’s financial center, Shanghai, will record its coldest period in December in four decades, prompting authorities on Thursday to issue warnings for low temperatures and wind, while northern cities battled ice.
The Shanghai Meteorological Office indicated on its Weibo social network account that the minimum recorded at its reference station will be below -1ºC for five consecutive days, from December 21 to 25, something that has never happened in the last 40 years.
The closest precedents occurred in 1991, 1993 and 1999, when similar temperatures were recorded but only for four consecutive days.
Temperatures this Thursday will move into negative values throughout the day, with minimums of up to -7ºC in the peripheral areas of the city, where some lakes have dawned frozen, according to videos released by the Office.
Below zero for several days
Throughout the city and in the suburbs of the eastern Chinese megalopolis, temperatures will remain below zero at all times during the day, meteorologists added.
Wang Kaiyun, 59, who works as a cleaner in central Shanghai and travels from the city’s suburbs on an electric scooter, said the temperature was -5 C on his hour-long journey on Thursday.
“Even though I was wearing gloves, I quickly lost feeling in my hands and they still hurt,” Wang said.
Unusually cold weather brought on by a powerful wave of cold air from Siberia has spread across China since the middle of last week, with many northern provinces rewriting their December records when the mercury fell as low as -30C in some cities.
Impacts on transportation and commerce
Ice and gusts in China have affected roads, railways and air transport, generating a sharp increase in heating demand.
The cold wave has also threatened to freeze some economic activities such as home food delivery. On social media, some people expressed reluctance to order takeout during the extreme cold due to concerns for the safety of delivery drivers.
The low temperatures coincide with the winter solstice, a date on which families go to cemeteries to clean the graves of their ancestors as a sign of respect, so a large number of trips are expected which, together with the frost, could cause traffic problems.
The authorities have already announced a reinforcement of traffic patrols, especially on roads leading to cemeteries.
Apart from the low temperatures, the authorities also issued a blue alert for the strong winds that will hit Shanghai – especially the riverside areas of the Huangpu, the river that crosses the city, and the northwest areas – throughout this Thursday.
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