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Cold snap strikes normal life in northwest China
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-24
URUMQI: A cold snap hit northwestern Chinese regions yesterday, bringing chaos, including flight delays, traffic jams and stoppages in power and heat supplies.
A woman walks in heavy snow in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, yesterday. [China Daily]
Heavy snow blanketed most parts of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region on Tuesday night, bringing down the already low temperature to minus 40 C in the north and east of the far western region.
In some areas, it packed winds of up to 100 km per hour, a regional weather bureau spokesman said.
"This is by far the worst cold snap of this winter," he said. "It was a result of chilling factors from western Siberia."
Two expressways in the region were closed yesterday amid the snow.
In the Kazakh autonomous prefecture of Ili, the snow began at 7 pm on Tuesday and stopped at 2 am, cutting off power and heat supplies in Yining, a city of about 430,000.
Power resumed yesterday morning and repair work was continuing to restore the heating system.
More than 200 vehicles were stranded on the zigzagging mountain roads in the Ili River Valley on Tuesday night, when the fresh snow measured at least 20 cm deep, a traffic policeman said.
The snow closed the international airport in Urumqi yesterday, with more than 3,800 passengers stranded in the terminal building. A total of 42 flights to other cities were delayed, said the Xinjiang Airport Group.
The Xinjiang branch of China Southern Airlines alone estimated that 90 of its flights would be canceled or postponed yesterday.
The airport provided free water and food for the travelers. Airport staff cleared snow from the runway and operations resumed at 1 pm as the snow weakened.
The cold snap also hit northwestern Shaanxi province on Tuesday and brought down temperatures by 10 C, causing a run on gas supplies.
Liu Fengling, a resident in the provincial capital of Xi'an, complained she could not light her cooking stove on Tuesday night. Taxi drivers also complained they had to wait hours to fill up their gas tanks over the past week.
A spokesman with Xi'an Qinhua Natural Gas Corp said the city's gas consumption had topped 5 million cubic m daily, more than three times the normal 1.5 million cubic m.
He said the sudden freeze had increased demand for gas and his company would consider capping industrial and commercial gas consumption to meet demand.
The National Meteorological Center has warned the cold wave will also affect the three northeastern provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang, and North China with Beijing at the center.
It said the average temperature in these regions would drop by eight to 12 C from yesterday afternoon to tomorrow.
Xinhua
Copyright By chinadaily.com.cn. All rights reserved
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-24
URUMQI: A cold snap hit northwestern Chinese regions yesterday, bringing chaos, including flight delays, traffic jams and stoppages in power and heat supplies.
A woman walks in heavy snow in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, yesterday. [China Daily]
Heavy snow blanketed most parts of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region on Tuesday night, bringing down the already low temperature to minus 40 C in the north and east of the far western region.
In some areas, it packed winds of up to 100 km per hour, a regional weather bureau spokesman said.
"This is by far the worst cold snap of this winter," he said. "It was a result of chilling factors from western Siberia."
Two expressways in the region were closed yesterday amid the snow.
In the Kazakh autonomous prefecture of Ili, the snow began at 7 pm on Tuesday and stopped at 2 am, cutting off power and heat supplies in Yining, a city of about 430,000.
Power resumed yesterday morning and repair work was continuing to restore the heating system.
More than 200 vehicles were stranded on the zigzagging mountain roads in the Ili River Valley on Tuesday night, when the fresh snow measured at least 20 cm deep, a traffic policeman said.
The snow closed the international airport in Urumqi yesterday, with more than 3,800 passengers stranded in the terminal building. A total of 42 flights to other cities were delayed, said the Xinjiang Airport Group.
The Xinjiang branch of China Southern Airlines alone estimated that 90 of its flights would be canceled or postponed yesterday.
The airport provided free water and food for the travelers. Airport staff cleared snow from the runway and operations resumed at 1 pm as the snow weakened.
The cold snap also hit northwestern Shaanxi province on Tuesday and brought down temperatures by 10 C, causing a run on gas supplies.
Liu Fengling, a resident in the provincial capital of Xi'an, complained she could not light her cooking stove on Tuesday night. Taxi drivers also complained they had to wait hours to fill up their gas tanks over the past week.
A spokesman with Xi'an Qinhua Natural Gas Corp said the city's gas consumption had topped 5 million cubic m daily, more than three times the normal 1.5 million cubic m.
He said the sudden freeze had increased demand for gas and his company would consider capping industrial and commercial gas consumption to meet demand.
The National Meteorological Center has warned the cold wave will also affect the three northeastern provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang, and North China with Beijing at the center.
It said the average temperature in these regions would drop by eight to 12 C from yesterday afternoon to tomorrow.
Xinhua
Copyright By chinadaily.com.cn. All rights reserved
