Forecasters announce end to mild weather

The mild weather since this year's first solar term — Lichun, or spring begins — which was on Tuesday last week, will come to an end at the weekend with a cold wave bringing the city back to the chill of winter, forecasters said.

Temperatures are expected to drop to 1 degree Celsius in downtown areas and minus 1 to minus 3 degrees in the outskirts between Sunday and Tuesday. There may be sleet or short-lived light snow on Sunday morning.

Shanghai Meteorological Bureau said the city will wake up to fog on Friday with visibility in parts of the city less than 200 meters due to a southwesterly warm and moist air flow. There will also be heavy fog on Saturday morning.

From Thursday, a strong cold front is sweeping the country from north to south with central and eastern China to have large-scale rainy or snowy weather with gales and sharp drops in temperatures.

The bureau said the cold wave will arrive on Saturday, bringing gales and possible sleet over the weekend.

The low for downtown will be only 1 degree and the countryside will be even colder with thin ice.

Sunday will have a drizzly start but end in dry and overcast weather.

Next week will be mainly sunny and cloudy.

Temperatures will range from 2 to 10 degrees on Wednesday and 5 to 14 on Thursday.

Friday and Saturday will be warmer with temperatures between 10 and 17 degrees.

The bureau warns that fog, rain and snow may affect the transport of supplies and some outside work on epidemic prevention and control.