First Snow of the Year Causes Transport Chaos

Beijing's first official snowfall of this year finally arrived yesterday, bringing with it the coldest temperatures of this winter.

Beginning yesterday at 7pm, the city received an average 0.1 millimeters of snowfall with its northwest receiving the highest average at 0.5 millimeters, while Mentougou received the most at 1.9 millimeters.

This year's snowfall arrives 53 days after the expected date of Nov 29, the average first snowfall according to records from 1981 to 2010. As late as it is, the delayed snowfall doesn't come close to the latest snowfall in Beijing's recorded history, which happened on Feb 11, 1984, nor to the late snowfall of 2011 that landed on Feb 10.

With the last instance of precipitation occurring on Oct 29 of last year, Sunday's snowfall also marked the end of the city's 90-day-long dry spell. Although residents may feel especially particularly chapped and parched this winter, this year's arid conditions still fall short of Beijing's 114-day-long dry spell in 1971, or the 108-day precipitation-free winter that occurred just seven years ago.

Despite having received the barest minimum amount of precipitation to officially qualify it as a "snowfall," the snow has wreaked chaos for Beijing's transportation systems.

Massive lineups have appeared at Beijing South Station after the snow caused the cancellation of multiple trains. Elsewhere, the snow shut down city bus lines and eight city highways. Meanwhile, reports are now saying Beijing's Fangshan District has received 10 centimeters of snowfall.

The city received a light dusting of snow earlier this month, but the accumulation wasn't enough to register as an "official" snowfall. However, both snowfalls were accompanied by cold snaps, and yesterday's brought the coldest temperatures so far this year.

In advance of the snow, Beijing local weather advisory issued a cold temperature warning on Saturday that began today (Jan 22) and lasts until Wednesday (Jan 24). For these couple of days, daytime high temperatures are only expected to peak at 0 to -4 degrees Celsius while nighttime lows will fall to -8 to -12 degrees Celsius.

Having been deprived of snow, local residents took to social media online to share photographs of the snowfall, often writing the words "it's snowing" and "first snow" upon snow-covered vehicles:

Some Beijing residents immediately jumped at the chance to show off whatever meager snowfall they received, a far cry from the picturesque shots of 2016 or even last year:

Images: BJ News (bj.news.163.com), Weibo.com

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