China's First Cold Snap of the Winter Brings Heavy Snow to Eight Provinces and a 14-Degree Temperature Drop
China's weather service has issued a yellow alert for heavy snow across eight provinces, with the heaviest falls in Liaoning and Hebei. The cold snap arrives on Lidong, the traditional start of winter — and the temperature contrast between the snowy north and the still-shirt-sleeved south is a running national joke.
The Central Meteorological Observatory issued a yellow alert for heavy snow on Saturday evening, covering eight provinces and regions — Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Liaoning, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Gansu and Qinghai — with the heaviest falls in western Liaoning and northeastern Hebei, where snowfall of 30 to 32 millimetres and accumulations of more than 20 centimetres are forecast. The snow is accompanied by a cold wave: temperatures across central and eastern China are expected to drop 6 to 10 degrees, with localised falls of more than 14 degrees.
The timing is not accidental. Saturday was Lidong, the traditional start of winter in the Chinese solar calendar, and the arrival of the season's first snow on the same day is a running national joke — the hashtag "the Great Wall is covered in snow" has been trending alongside the weather alert, and state media have been circulating photographs of the ancient Great Wall in Hebei dusted with white.
The contrast with the south is the part of the story that travels. In Shenzhen, the maximum temperature on Saturday was 29 degrees, and air-conditioners, cold drinks and short sleeves were all in use. A local weather forecaster's explainer, "how long can Guangdong people still wear short sleeves?", noted that the average temperature in Shenzhen would not fall below 22 degrees until the middle of the month, and that "it is not impossible that Guangdong people will be wearing short sleeves in December." The same weather system, in other words, is producing a snowstorm in the north and a warm autumn in the south — a fact that, in Chinese internet culture, is a recurring source of national amusement.
The practical risks are the usual ones for a Chinese cold snap: icy roads, frozen pipes, collapsed greenhouses and the danger to livestock in the pastoral regions. The weather service's warning is unambiguous — take care on the roads, dress warmly, and beware of collapsing old sheds and greenhouses.