Snow continues in Beijing with cold wave to come

BEIJING, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- Beijing Municipality is seeing more snow on Thursday, with a cold wave expected to sweep the Chinese capital on Friday.

According to the Beijing Meteorological Observatory, the average precipitation in the city from 5 a.m. to midnight Wednesday was 2.7 mm, with an average of 3.1 mm in the urban area.

On Thursday, moderate to heavy snow was forecast in the daytime and light snow at night.

The weather forecast also noted that the highest temperature in the city on Thursday would be only minus 2 degrees Celsius and the lowest would be minus 5 degrees.

Following this round of snow, which is expected to end on Friday, the city will be hit by a cold wave, with minimum temperatures expected to drop below minus 10 degrees at night.

The city is still on an orange alert for heavy snow, a yellow alert for icy roads and a blue alert for cold waves.

China has a four-tier weather warning system, with red representing the most severe alert, followed by orange, yellow and blue.

In response to the weather, primary schools, secondary schools and kindergartens in Beijing started suspending classes on Wednesday and the resumption of in-person classes will be announced later, according to the Beijing Municipal Education Commission.