City records its warmest December day since 1949, with chill coming right up
Short sleeves and T-shirts are enough in a Minhang District park.
Temperatures in Shanghai topped 22 degrees Celsius on Thursday, the warmest mid-December day since 1949. However, the city is about to shiver in a strong cold front from Friday.
The benchmark Xuajiahui Weather Station recorded a high of 22.3 degrees. Some other monitoring stations even recorded 25 degrees and above, including Xiangyang Park in Xuhui District at 26.2 degrees, and Zhabei Park in Jing'an District at 25.5 degrees.
A mother and child enjoy a walk in the warm weather.
However, a strong cold front from the north will start to affect the city from tomorrow with drizzle and stronger winds. Temperatures are expected to drop to 7 to 17 degrees on Friday with showers.
Shanghai's weather authorities issued this year's first blue cold alert, the lowest level in the four-tier weather warning system, at 5pm on Thursday, warning of a drop in temperatures by 11 to 13 degrees in 48 hours.
They are predicted to drop to between 1 and 6 degrees on Saturday with short-term sleet in the morning.
The low is forecast to plunge to minus 2 degrees in urban areas, and minus 3 to minus 6 in rural areas on Sunday.
China's National Meteorological Center issued an orange alert for a cold wave on Thursday, forecasting temperature drops in most parts of the country.
China has a four-tier, color-coded weather warning system for cold waves, with red representing the most severe weather, followed by orange, yellow, and blue.
Parts of Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Jilin, and Liaoning could see temperatures plunge by more than 20 degrees.
By 7am on Thursday, over 100 high-speed trains, including dozens of trains operating between Shanghai and Beijing, had been suspended within the Yangtze River Delta region due to a blizzard in the north.
More than 700 flights at Beijing's two airports were temporarily suspended. According to road condition information released by China's Ministry of Transportation, 59 roads in Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, and Henan provinces, involving 49 highways, have been closed due to blizzards and ice.
