A cold front is breezing in from northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, bringing plummeting temperatures to residents of North and Northeast China in the next two days.

Temperatures will drop between 8-10 C, with brisk winds adding further chill.

In eastern and southern areas of northeast China, this could mean sleet and light snow, while eastern areas of Jilin Province should prepare for heavy snowfall, China Meteorological Administration said yesterday.

Temperatures in southwest China's Sichuan and Guizhou provinces will also drop by 4-8 C when the cold front hits.

However, lucky residents in the capital Beijing will not feel the arrival of the cold front too strongly.

"Beijing's temperature will not drop sharply. Actually yesterday's temperature was higher than Sunday's," said Yang Guiming, a meteorologist from China Meteorological Administration.

At 5 am on Sunday morning, Beijing's temperature was 1 C, while at the same time yesterday it was 6 C, Yang said.

"Beijingers felt colder on Monday, because of the strong winds," Yang said.

This year, Beijing is unseasonably warm. Although December is fast approaching, most people have not had to don their thick winter jackets thus far.

"The current temperatures are a little bit higher than in previous years," Yang said.

"But we cannot say that this is a warm winter, as it is still early days."

In related news, due to the arrival of a sudden cold air mass yesterday, rare thunderstorms hit Dalian, a city in northeast China's Liaoning Province.

This is only the third time the city has had thunderstorms in winter since 1951. The last two times were in winters of 1991 and 2000.

The weather was caused by the meeting of the cold and the warm air masses.

(China Daily November 29, 2005)