Snow, blizzards and polar temperatures are occurring in northern China in one of the worst cold spells on record in December, forcing authorities in the capital to suspend train services, close schools and urge citizens to stay indoors.

A cold air mass headed for Beijing from the west, the second cold wave this week.

Authorities in the capital have issued the second-highest blizzard warning in effect until tomorrow, Thursday — the only such warning so far in the country.

To avoid chaos from the expected round of “permanent” snowfall, the city of 22 million people closed all schools starting today and imposed distance learning.

Businesses were asked to offer their employees flexible working conditions and asked them to avoid commuting.

Attractions in the mountainous and western part of the country have been temporarily closed.

Some rail links to key cities such as the commercial hub of Shanghai, Hangzhou and Wuhan were suspended. Trains that are still running are running at a slower speed causing delays.

However Beijing International Airport continues to operate.

Beijing is expecting temperatures as low as minus 18C this weekend compared to the mid-December average of minus 8.

Even Shanghai in the south, now enjoying a summer of 20 degrees Celsius, is expected to face bad weather, with the thermometer on Saturday and Sunday reading as low as minus 4.

More than 6,000 rescuers are on alert for emergency road rescues and at least 5,800 snowplows and snow removal equipment are at their disposal.

City officials enlisted volunteers to shovel snow from the streets in addition to the 73,000 employees tasked with the job. They also requested that the temperature in the indoor heating systems be increased.

The last time Beijing experienced such cold conditions was on January 7, 2021, when the temperature dropped to minus 19.6 degrees Celsius.

The city’s all-time low temperature record is minus 27.4 degrees Celsius on February 22, 1966.

This week’s cold snap, compared to the autumnal conditions of a week ago, reflects recent rapid temperature swings.

October was one of the hottest months in Beijing in decades, in a year of extreme weather.

And while northern China faces colder-than-usual weather, Hangzhou will officially begin winter on Dec. 16, two weeks late — the latest since records began in 1951.

The city, located near Shanghai, needs to record five consecutive days of temperatures of minus 10 degrees Celsius to herald the arrival of winter.

Frozen rivers

Temperatures are likely to drop more than 14 degrees Celsius in parts of northern, northwestern and southern China, along with parts of Inner Mongolia, Guizhou province and even areas south of the Yangtze River, forecasters said.

Issuing its first cold weather warning since 2013, the National Meteorological Center (NMC) urged local governments to take precautions and measures to protect tropical crops.

It has forecast heavy rain and snow in central and eastern regions until Friday, with up to 30mm of rain and blizzards in parts of Shaanxi, Henan and Shandong provinces.

Cumulative snowfall is likely to be the highest for the corresponding period in a decade, as highlighted.

Many rivers have already frozen over in the vast northeastern province of Heilongjiang that borders Russia.