A warm weekend in Shanghai with cold front on the way

Shanghai is embracing nice weather over the weekend, but a round of cold air is on the way.

Temperature is expected between 12 and 22 degrees Celsius over the next two days with breeze and sunshine.

Mercury today was between 12 and 18 degrees despite the thick clouds hovering over the city sky.

This month, the temperature was warmer than usual with less rain. As of Thursday, the average temperature in March was 12.9 degrees, 2 degrees higher than the same period in previous years, according to the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau.

The precipitation in March was 30 percent less than the annual average.

A strong cold front is forecast to set off from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Sunday, and expected to hit Shanghai on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Qingming Festival, with strong wind and rainfall. The temperature is likely to drop between 10 and 16 degrees.

Qingming is the fifth solar term in the traditional calendar, indicating the rising of temperature and increasing of rainfall.

Chinese people pay respects to their ancestors around Qingming Festival, which is also known as tomb-sweeping day and falls on April 5 this year.

Sunny days are expected to return to the city from next Friday when the high is back to over 20 degrees.