On Monday, a rider is dressed warm as the temperature drops to 3 C in Shenyang, Liaoning province. The low temperature in the city was 15 C on Saturday. YAN BO China's national observatory issued its first alert on Sunday for a cold wave in the second half of 2022, warning that a sharp temperature decreases and gales could affect vast areas of the country until Thursday.
The National Meteorological Center released a media release on Sunday from the Blue Alert, the earliest to be issued before the normal annual cold period. It comes at a time when central and eastern parts of the country are experiencing higher than normal temperatures, and southern China is in the grip of a scorching heat wave, according to a media release from the National Meteorological Center. The cold wave moves southward in many areas, the decrease in temperature will be dramatic, the center said.
China has a four-tier weather warning system, with red representing the most severe weather, followed by orange, yellow and blue.
It said that the south's heat wave is predicted to last until Tuesday, with daily maximum temperatures of 35 to 37 C in many areas. In some places, the daily high could go above 40 C.
The center's chief forecaster, Xiang Tao, said on Saturday that the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River had reported record high temperatures for that period. He said that the heat wave is expected to affect even larger areas before the cold wave arrives there.
The average daily maximum temperature in the region will keep increasing, and it's highly possible that new record highs will be recorded, Zhang said.
The centre said that the drop in temperature will be as much as 18 C in some areas, including the eastern parts of Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces, from Sunday to Thursday.
The cold wave will bring medium to heavy rainfall as it moves south, it said. Some areas may be hit by severe convective weather, which refers to a sudden weather phenomenon that usually includes thunderstorms, hail, gales and locally heavy rain.
The public should pay close attention to forecasts to put on more clothes in a timely manner, he said. He also suggested reinforcement of makeshift and tall structures.
The center warned that the consistent rainfall in northeastern parts of Sichuan province and southern Shaanxi province could cause geological disasters and flash floods in mountainous areas from Monday to Wednesday.
It said that gales are predicted to hit the Yangtze River basin and areas to its north, as well as the waters of Bohai Bay, the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea.