Winter is no longer coming: It's here

Winter has officially come with another round of cold air making its way into the city, Shanghai Meteorological Bureau announced yesterday.

According to the bureau, there have now been five days with an average temperature below 10 degrees so Friday was the first day of winter.

Seasonal cold will cut the low by 5 degrees Celsius to 3 today and the chill will last through Friday, when the high will go back above 10 degrees.

The mercury will range from 3 to 9 degrees today and tomorrow, and climb a bit to 5 to 12 degrees on Friday under cloudy skies. It will turn showery at the weekend with a high of 13 and a low of 8 expected on Saturday. For Sunday, it will cool down again with a high of 10 and low around 6.

This year we entered autumn on October 5 and winter on December 7.

Autumn lasted 63 days, one day more than the average. Since 2000, the longest autumn was recorded in 2004 with 83 days and the shortest was in 2009 with 35 days.