Heavy snow in China (Merged)

[Coast]

BEIJING, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Eleven people were killed when an overloaded bus overturned on a snow-covered highway in eastern China, police said on Monday, bringing the death toll from weather-related accidents over the weekend to at least 25. The accident happened in Anhui province on Sunday when the bus carrying 72 people, 21 more than allowed, overturned in the city of Mingguang. Fifty-one people were injured.

Cold weather and heavy snow have struck unusually large swathes of central and eastern China, forcing the closure of highways, causing accidents and disrupting flights. In the central province of Hubei, at least 1.1 million people in 27 cities had been "affected" by snow, with 10 killed, including one crushed under a collapsed gas-station roof in Wuhan, the provincial capital, the China Daily said.

It did not say how the other nine died. Four people were killed in Hubei and Anhui in houses collapsing under snow, Xinhua said.

Crops covering 557,300 hectares (2,151 sq miles) and about 10,000 houses had been destroyed, bringing direct economic losses in the two provinces to 1.14 billion yuan ($157.4 million). About 300,000 passengers in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, were forced to change travel plans as more than 1,000 km (600 miles) of highway in the region were closed on Saturday due to the snow.

The National Meteorological Centre on Sunday issued an orange alert, the second highest on a scale of five, for more heavy snow in central and eastern parts of the country

More info here

[Coast]

'China's Hubei Province has had its heaviest snow in 16 years'

Snow also seriously affecting Ngari Prefecture in the west of Tibet CLICKY

[Cookie]

thats some snowfall, is it normal for this time of year?

[Greyowl]

80 million people affected according to BBC

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7214562.stm

[busman]

Good to see we are not the only ones who come to a stand still when it snows

[Coast]

I see that hundreds of thousands of people in Guangzhou have been stranded and they despatched 10 000 workers to go and clear the lines!!!! Couldn't do that in the UK! LINKY

The national meteorological authority says the freezing weather will continue to pummel provinces from west to east in the coming days, with heavy snow possible in Shanghai and neighbouring provinces. This is likely to have an impact on the region's business and manufacturing sectors.

Some good news then

[su rui ke]

I see that hundreds of thousands of people in Guangzhou have been stranded and they despatched 10 000 workers to go and clear the lines!!!! Couldn't do that in the UK! LINKY

Some good news then

Yes, today we finally got some lying snow here right down on the coast near Ningbo after more than a week of freezing cold and drizzle. It's all melted by now but there is more forecast for tomorrow - we'll see; it's always very marginal here.

Judging from the TV pictures Nanjing has at least a foot of lying snow and friends said there was snow on the ground in the centre of Shanghai on Sunday, which doesn't happen too often.

It couldn't have happened at a worse time, of course, with millions of people trying to head home for the holiday. Is there anything in particular we can blame all this on? La Nina?

[Roger J Smith]

Look at this map for eastern Asia, valid 06z today ... the colder air has clearly covered all of China right down to the south coast, quite often in winter this frontal zone is closer to central China. The problems are severe for travelers hoping to get home for the Chinese new year holiday, I was just watching news coverage from the Beijing area, vast crowds of people milling about after waiting in some cases up to six days for trains that cannot run because electricity is out in many places, and the Chinese premier promising to get things running "soon" -- I imagine he has easier ways of getting around.

http://www.uni-koeln.de/math-nat-fak/geome...NNWWfareast.gif

[Coast]

Yes, today we finally got some lying snow here right down on the coast near Ningbo after more than a week of freezing cold and drizzle. It's all melted by now but there is more forecast for tomorrow - we'll see; it's always very marginal here.

Judging from the TV pictures Nanjing has at least a foot of lying snow and friends said there was snow on the ground in the centre of Shanghai on Sunday, which doesn't happen too often.

It couldn't have happened at a worse time, of course, with millions of people trying to head home for the holiday. Is there anything in particular we can blame all this on? La Nina?

An on-the-spot update, fantastic - thank you su rui ke!!!!

Latest BBC News report here

'China is struggling to cope with its worst snowfall in decades, with officials warning of future food shortages as winter crops are wrecked'

[su rui ke]

It's just started snowing again here (about 7.30 am in China). It's quite heavy and beginning to lie. This snowfall is forecast to last into tomorrow, so things could get interesting again!

[Coast]

China has deployed almost half a million soldiers alongside police and emergency workers struggling to restore road and rail links, power and water as blizzards and ice storms continue to rage.

Source: Guardian

The heaviest snowstorms to hit the centre and south of the country in 50 years have continued to cause havoc to Chinese New Year travel plans, with 105 million people affected - 45 million more than the total population of Britain

Source: Telegraph

[biffvernon]

Snowier than usual but is it colder?

[su rui ke]

Snowier than usual but is it colder?

That's an interesting question. For this month, mean temperatures locally have been slightly below average with a -0.3C anomaly. I would sum it up by saying that the prolonged cold, but not severely cold, spell of the last two or three weeks has been partly offset by a very warm spell earlier in the month - we had maxima over 20C for a couple of days during that time.

The cold anomaly in the far south has been stronger - maxima of around only 6/7 C in Guangzhou this week! However, the cold did not set in there until a little later and they also had a very warm first half to the month and look to have finished slightly above average for the month. The (in)famously cold northeast aslo looks to have been slightly milder than normal.

So, yes, I think the story has been more the persistence of the snowfall in central and eastern China rather than any extreme cold. No doubt some local low temperature records will have been broken though.

The temperature data I've been quoting come form NOAA's excellent Global Temperature Time Series. I'll try and do a more thorough analysis for January when I have a bit more time.

Anyway, here it's still snowing ...

Edited February 2, 2008 by su rui ke

[Cookie]

thanks for the updates!

[Coast]

It looks like more snow is falling on central, southern and eastern areas of China, but they do seem to be battling against the power failures and lines down.

[Coast]

So, the Chinese year of the earth rat starts today and Feng Shui experts are predicting floods, tornado's and other natural disasters. It hasn't started out well with the heaviest snowfall for ten years causing millions of migrant workers to spend the holiday season away from their families because of gridlocked transport networks.

'More than 3,000 troops and engineers were working to repair 1,000 pylons toppled by the snow, Xinhua said, while the air force transported 100 tonnes of candles to several cities in the south where people were still suffering from black-outs.

The weather is believed to have affected more than 100 million people and has so far caused 80bn yuan ($11bn) of damage'

More on the latest situation here

[Coast]

BEIJING (Reuters)

More snowy weather was forecast for parts of China on Monday, threatening to snarl transport at the height of holiday travel and hampering the country's efforts to return to normality after its worst winter in decades.

The travel crunch comes as China's transport systems are only just creaking back to life after freak cold and ice storms hit swathes of the country, causing billions of dollars in damage and killing at least 80 people.

"The overall transport situation is still relatively grim, especially problems of capacity and demand emerging in railway transport," the State Council's command centre for dealing with the disaster said in a statement.

Sleet and snow was forecast for the already hard-hit southwestern province of Guizhou, the country's meteorological centre said, calling for authorities to make preparations to deal with traffic and public safety.

BEIJING (AFP)

China has lost about one tenth of its forest resources to recent snow storms regarded as the most severe in half a century, state media reported Sunday.

A total of 17.3 million hectares (43 million acres) of forest have been damaged across China as the result of three weeks of savage winter weather, the China Daily website said, citing the State Forestry Administration.

More than half the country's provinces have been affected, and in the worst-hit regions, nearly 90 percent of forests have been destroyed, according to the paper

[biffvernon]

Once again we hear of

freak cold

. But is it? There is a common misconception that snowy weather is cold weather but what are the temperature numbers? Is it freak cold or freak excess precipitation?

[Coast]

I wondered how long it would be before La Nina got the blame!

GENEVA, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- The current La Nina weather phenomenon may just be a partial cause of south China's freeze-up at the start of 2008, said the United Nations World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) Monday.

The latest La Nina pattern, which began in the third quarter of 2007, has picked up strength in the past three months, with sea surface temperatures now about 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius colder than average over large parts of the eastern and central equatorial Pacific Ocean, said the latest report issued by the WMO.

Presenting the Geneva-based body's report, Rupa Kumar Killi, a WMO climate expert, said the recent month-long snow and ice-storms in China's central, southern and eastern regions could be connected with the La Nina phenomenon, the climatic opposite of El Nino.

However, he said China's freeze-up was a result of several causes combined and was partly caused by a cold surge from the north and west. He also said the present La Nina cycle may last at least until mid-2008 and it is also possible, if less likely, that the cycle could stretch into the third quarter.

La Nina is a large pool of unusually cold water in the equatorial Pacific that develops every few years and influences global weather. It is the climatic opposite of El Nino, a warming of the Pacific, and both have been associated with extreme weather around the globe. Since Jan. 10, snow, sleet and low temperatures have swept China's southern regions, a rare occurrence for the area.

A rescuer carries an 80-year-old woman out of Jinlian village in Longnan county, East China's Jiangxi Province, Feb. 3, 2008. After being trapped for days in frozen weather and without electricity and water supply, 1,761 people in the village were rescued successfully on Sunday.

Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com

[Coast]

Feb. 13 (Bloomberg Asia):

Hong Kong posted its 21st day of cold temperatures, matching a stretch 90 years ago to become the second-longest on record, after snowfalls in China.

'This is the second-longest since 1885,' Hong Kong Observatory Chief Experimental Officer Li Kin-wai said in a telephone interview today. ``It might last longer.'' The city's cold weather, defined as 12 degrees Celsius (53.6 Fahrenheit) or below, has lasted since Jan. 24.

The cold weather results from China's heavy snowfall carried by continuous northeastern winds to the city, Li said. China's worst snowstorms in 50 years blocked roads, delayed trains and grounded aircraft, causing direct economic losses of about 80 billion yuan ($11 billion), according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

Hong Kong's longest-ever period of cold weather, of 27 straight days, was 40 years ago in February 1968, and the second- longest, of 21 consecutive days, was in January 1918, Li said.

Beijing is forecast to fall as low as -8 degrees Celsius today, and Harbin is predicted as low as -21 degrees, according to the National Meteorological Center. In Hong Kong, which has subtropical weather for much of the year, the temperature was 11 degrees at 10 a.m. local time.

[Coast]

Yunnan hit hard by return of snow

Almost 180,000 people have been stranded in southwestern Yunnan Province by a return of freezing weather and snow which has blocked roads and caused blackouts. About 14,000 kilometres of road in Yunnan and more than 12,000 passengers were affected yesterday alone, a spokesman for the provincial transport department said.

Roads in the northern part of the province have already been seriously damaged by snowfalls which began late last month, officials said. The disaster has left about 178,000 people and 20,000 motor vehicles stranded, and has caused an economic loss of 154 million yuan (US$20.5 million).

Snowy weather revisited the province on Thursday. Officials in Qujing, the second largest city in Yunnan, closed six highways, cancelled 42 coach routes and suspended the operation of about 800 motor vehicles. Transport in other cities, including Zhaotong and Diqing, has also been affected by snow. The provincial transport department has organised emergency work crews to restore road travel, especially for the transport of important equipment and materials.

However, their work has been greatly hampered by the weather, poor facilities and a shortage of money.The workers have no anti-freeze and snow-removal equipment. Elsewhere, China's snow-ravaged provinces are gradually recovering from widespread blackouts caused by lingering snow storms.

As of Saturday, the Southern Power Grid has reconnected power to 23.28 million people, accounting for 88.9 percent of the total who suffered from blackouts, according to the latest statistics from the disaster relief and emergency command centre under the State Council. The State Grid Corp of China has restored 14,200 power transmission lines, or 92.9 percent of the total damaged, and 802 transformer substations have resumed operation, representing 97.1 percent of those disrupted

[Coast]

26 Feb 08 - Beijing

Snow has forced more than 1,300 primary and middle schools in southern and central China to postpone the start of the new semester, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said here on Monday. The ministry was concerned about the structural safety of schools in snow-stricken areas, said Jiang Peimin, director with the MOE. Storms "made 3.5 million square meters of school buildings unsafe for further use without repair," he said.

By February 23, more than 485,000 houses around the country had collapsed due to the heavy snow, which claimed 129 lives and caused 151.65 billion yuan in losses

Source: news.rednet.cn

25 Feb 08

Fresh snow in parts of China has again disrupted transport and killed livestock, as the country struggles to recover from the worst winter in half a century. Snow started to blanket the eastern province of Shandong on Sunday. Some freeways were closed and thousands of vehicles were stranded.

In the Ili River Valley in the far western Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, blizzards raged from Thursday to Saturday. About 12,000 cattle were killed, causing losses of 18 million yuan (2.52 million U.S. dollars). "The continuous heavy snow and wintry weather last week have sharply increased fatalities among ewes and lambs, as it is the breeding season," said Ma Cheng, director of the husbandry bureau of Ili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture.

By Sunday night at least 10,830 sheep, 848 oxen, 240 horses and 90 pigs had been killed. The region experienced prolonged icy weather in the middle of December. Since then, 69,700 cattle had died in Ili. In the past few weeks, the river valley was stricken by ice flows.

Alxa Right Banner (county), in northern Inner Mongolia, also suffered the worst snowy weather in 50 years. The local government said 519 people were affected, 89 others were evacuated and 40 herdsmen households had difficulty in finding drinking water. In Ehen Hudag, seat of the Banner government, water supply was suspended to 2,169 families because water pipelines burst under extremely cold weather. Water supply was not expected to resume until May.

The snows and freezing weather also deprived 80,000 livestock of food. Another 3,200 livestock were either dead, injured or lost. The local government said the snow disasters had brought them a direct economic loss of at least 1.2 million yuan. Prolonged snow in Xinjiang forced the closure of five airports in Kax, Hotan, Aksu, Kuqa and Altay in the past three days. The Aksu Airport was closed from 9:00 a.m. Saturday till 1:00 p.m. Monday.

Twenty-five domestic flights from Urumqi to Beijing, Chengdu, Yinchuan, Shanghai, Chongqing and other places were delayed. From Tuesday to Wednesday, heavy snows are expected in southeast Tibet and northwest Yunnan Province. Tibet would see a temperature drop of up to four degrees centigrade throughout the region and winds up to force nine in the south, according to the region's weather bureau. The regional meteorological authorities also warned the snow would affect transport and animal husbandry, and urged people to make preparations.

Heavy snow and blizzards have been forecast for China's central, eastern and northern and northwestern regions, including Xinjiang, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hubei, Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu, the National Meteorological Centre said on its website (www.nmc.gov.cn) on Monday. In Jiangsu Province, widespread snow began on Sunday night. The provincial meteorological authorities on Monday morning issued a yellow alert warning of icy road and suggested that residents should avoid traveling by bicycles. Blizzards were also expected in the northwest of central Hubei Province, which was plagued by winter storms earlier this month

Source: news.xinhuanet.com

Edited February 29, 2008 by Coast

[Coast]

Updated: 2008-2-29 16:40:17

"The snow has taken a toll on the Chinese economy," said Zhu Hongren, deputy director of the Bureau of Economic Operations with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). Most parts of China remained very short of electricity amid severe coal shipment disruptions and physical damage to the grid caused by the prolonged snow, rain and cold weather.

As of Jan. 28, the country had experienced a power gap peaking at nearly 40 million kilowatts as a coal shortage cut power generation at some plants, according to the State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC). The State Council, or the cabinet, has established a command center to coordinate contingency measures for coal, oil and power supply, transportation and disaster relief in snow-hit areas, said the NDRC's Zhu.

On Friday, the Ministry of Railways started a 10-day emergency coal shipping campaign, vowing to ensure a daily thermal coal delivery of more than 40,000 cars during the campaign, said Zhao Chunlei, a railway ministry official in charge of train scheduling. "Coal stockpiles are stable and increasing, with small margins. But the reserves at major power plants are still below the level of last October," said Zhu Hongren. The deputy director said that some areas could experience "continued shortages" because of transport disruptions and he added that the top priority was to "ensure the stability of prices".

Cole and other vegetables, oranges and wheat, in particular, suffered severely from the snow, according to the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA). The public has started to feel the pressure of short supplies as vegetable prices escalated across the country. In Changsha, Wuhan and other hard-hit cities in the southern, central and eastern regions, vegetable prices have more than doubled. Areas not directly affected by the snow, such as Beijing and the southern Guangdong Province, have also seen price rises.

Source:english.rednet.cn

[Coast]

XI'NING, March 1 (Xinhua)

Severe snow disasters have left 1.65 million people snowblind and frostbitten, 500,000 livestock and wildlife dead and 3.1 million others on verge of starvation in Tibetan prefectures of northwestern Qinghai Province. Since October last year, consecutive low temperature had gripped the province. The temperature plunged to minus 36.3 degrees centigrade, the record lowest in January in the province, said the provincial meteorological bureau.

In Yushu, Guoluo and Huangnan Tibet Autonomous Prefectures, most of the grassland was covered by snow, usually 16 to 32 cm thick, which had brought great losses to local animal husbandry. In the disaster-stricken prefectures, 130,000 people had run out of fuels, 350,000 people in need of food and 110,000 others short of warm clothes or quilts, said the provincial government.

Source: news.xinhuanet.com

[Coast]

BEIJING (Reuters) Wed Mar 5, 2008 1:27am EST

China's power sector lost some 16 billion yuan ($2.25 billion) when the worst winter storms in half a century brought down transmission lines and snarled transport of fuel, a former top regulator said on Wednesday. The heavy snow and ice hit swathes of southern and central China in late January and early February, causing one of the country's worst power crises as coal supplies ran out and generators couldn't transmit their electricity to hard-hit areas.

"Losses from the storms were 16 billion yuan," Shao Bingren, former vice-chairman of the State Electricity Regulatory Commission, told journalists on the sidelines of a meeting of China's parliament in Beijing.The disaster is still having serious knock-on effects in Guangdong province, China's manufacturing hub, the Hong-Kong based South China Morning Post reported earlier this month.

The southern province is facing its worst power crisis in 30 years because the storm brought down links to neighboring provinces that normally supplement power from its own producers. About 10 gigawatts (GW) will not reach the province, creating a supply shortfall at peak demand times this month of 12 GW, twice last year's highest level.

The link lines will not be fully restored before May, the report quoted a deputy director of the Guangdong Economic and Trade Commission as saying. Low water levels in the province's hydropower reservoirs have compounded the problem, and many companies are buying or dusting off diesel generators -- despite high fuel costs.

In 2004 a massive power crisis in China pushed up demand for diesel as businesses turned to individual generators to keep production on, boosting world prices.