Society

Weather conditions to improve in SW China

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-01-03 14:02

BEIJING - The rain that quickly turned into ice on the ground causing havoc in China's Guizhou and Hunan provinces is mostly over, but low temperatures are expected to continue, according to country's meteorological authority.

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Central and north Guizhou may still experience lingering freezing rain, however the rest of Guizhou and the western part of Hunan are unlikely to receive more of the rain in the next week, the National Meteorological Center (NMC) said in a statement posted on its website.

The NMC said freezing rain hit southeastern Hunan as well as central and south parts of Guizhou at 6 am Monday after it had lashed 62 counties and cities in Guizhou as of early Sunday, causing highway closures and traffic jams.

Most expressways in Guizhou were closed Sunday due to freezing rain that has stranded some 6,200 people and some 11,800 others in transportation stations, according to provincial transportation authorities.

Expressway closing in Guizhou also incurred traffic jam in neighboring Hunan Province on Sunday, trapping more than 6,000 passengers on a expressway leading to Guizhou.

Temperatures had dropped to minus one to minus four degrees Celsius in most parts of Guizhou and Hunan on Sunday morning, and the cold weather would continue throughout early January, said the NMC.