Northern China is bracing itself for a cold snap heading in from western Siberia and the Mongolian Plateau that will cause temperatures to plummet by as much as 16 C.

Northwest winds of Force 5 to 6 are expected to sweep over most parts in northwest China, the central and western parts of north China over the next three days, bringing snow with it, with temperatures expected to drop by about 8 C.

"Upon the heels of the cold front which is predicted to push deeply into the country this week, more snowfalls can be expected in the north with rains or snow flurries possibly in the south," Yang Guiming, a senior expert of the Central Meteorological Office, said at the weekend.

Northwest China, the central and western parts of north China will be most affected by the cold snap.

Following the light snow on Saturday, the last day of 2005, Beijing and Tianjin in north China will see temperatures plummet by as much as 10 C from tonight.

Beijing had been enjoying a relatively warm start to the new year, with temperatures of about 3 C.

By next Monday, temperatures in parts of northwest China and north China's autonomous regions and provinces including Xinjiang, Inner Mongolian and Gansu will fall by as much as 16 C from today.

On Tuesday, heavy snowfalls are likely to blanket areas in the Tibet Autonomous Region in souhtwest China and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China .

The cold wave will pass through most of central China and east China as it moves southwards.

"The cold front, one of the strongest ones of this winter, will not fade out throughout the country until Thursday. By then, temperatures will sink in many areas, even in parts of southwest China like the Sichuan Basin, which does not normally see very cold winter days," Yang said.

"In the rest of this month, the coldest period of winter, at least three winter freezes will grip more areas across the country in succession," warned Wang Bangzhong, deputy director of the forecasting service and disaster mitigation department under the China Meteorological Administration.

"China is experiencing the coldest winter in 20 years as the national average temperature in December 1.5 C below the monthly average, and was the coldest recorded since 1986," he said.

Reviewing the weather changes over the past year, he said: "The country experienced the hottest summer since 1951, with eight typhoons or tropical cyclones, the most of its type since 1949, along with many other disasters like regional floods and heatwaves.

"In 2005, we had only nine sandstorms over the skies of north China and northwest China, which was the least of its type in about 50 years for the drought-prone northern provinces."

(China Daily January 2, 2006)