A tourist braves strong wind in Beijing on Monday. A large part of the country will experience colder than usual weather in the coming days, meteorologists said. [Wang Jing / China Daily]
China: China is experiencing a colder winter than usual and temperatures will continue to fall until mid-February, meteorologists said. "Over the weekend, a new cold front will bring precipitation and a sudden temperature drop to most parts of China, and after mid-February, temperatures will climb in fluctuations," Huang Xiaoyu, chief forecaster of the China Meteorological Administration, told China Daily on Monday. She added that the average temperature in China in January was about 1 C lower than the usual level. The National Meteorological Center issued an alert for a cold snap on Monday, predicting the temperature drop up to 14 C before Wednesday. China is not alone in having unusually cold weather. Europe is experiencing a bitter cold spell that has claimed lives and paralyzed traffic. Wang Qiwei, of the National Climate Center of the China Meteorological Administration, said the widespread cold is caused by high atmospheric pressure in the Arctic. When the atmospheric pressure in the Artic is higher than the area outside the pole, the cold air spreads. The air pressure increased rapidly in the Arctic in mid-January, causing the fast spread of cold to Europe and Asia, Wang said. Global warming has become a household term, but the widespread chill has raised doubts among the public about whether Earth is in the grip of global cooling. Ding Yihui, deputy director-general of Climate Change Experts Committee and executive director of the scientific committee of World Climate Research Program, said the temporary period of low temperatures does not indicate that global warming has slowed. The term global warming means the temperature of Earth is generally rising, but it still has relatively cold and warm periods, Ding told People's Daily. According to the second National Assessment Report on Climate Change, released last year, land surface temperatures in China increased by 1.38 C from 1951 to 2009. Ding said global warming is not only driving up the temperature, but also causing frequent extreme weather events such as drought and extreme cold. Aside from global warming, surface cooling of oceans and weaker sun can cause temperatures to drop, he added. Source: China.org.cn