Environment

Deep Freeze in China

China is experiencing unusual cold this winter with the national average temperature hitting the lowest in 28 years. Snow and ice have closed highways, cancelled flights, stranded tourists and knocked out power in several provinces.

The China Meteorological Administration attributes plunging temperatures partly to southward-moving polar cold fronts, caused by melting polar ice from global warming. It said the air was moist and likely to dump heavy snow in China, Europe and North America.

The national average temperature was -3.8° C since late November 2012, the coldest in nearly three decades. The average in northeastern China dipped to -15.3°C, the coldest in 43 years, and dropped to a 42-year low of -7.4°C in northern China.

In some areas — northeastern China, eastern Inner Mongolia, and the northern part of far-western Xinjiang province — the low has hit -40° C.

The state-run, English-language China Daily reported on Friday that about 1,000 ships were stuck in ice in Laizhou Bay in eastern China's Bohai Sea.

The cold spell has killed about 180,000 head of livestock, affecting some 770,000 people across Inner Mongolia since late December.