With forecasters predicting more snow, coupled with overcast or foggy days until at least Monday, it will stay damp and chilly - between zero and minus 4 to 5 degrees centigrade - warned Guo Hu of the Beijing Meteorological Observatory yesterday.

People also need to be careful when walking and driving along with slippery roads and pavements amid poor visibility, said Guo.

The other hazard facing Beijingers in such weather conditions is the likelihood of picking up a virus. The temperature is not very low and this, combined with the damp air, encourages viruses to be active, he explained.

Other problems occur with the increase of particles in the air, which can cause respiratory diseases, added Guo.

Already hospitals are seeing an increasing number of casualties. About 20 per cent more people have been treated in the emergency department of the Sino-Japan Friendship Hospital in Chaoyang District, suffering from respiratory problems or injuries from falling on the icy streets, said a doctor named Zhang at the hospital.

The old and young are particularly at risk from viruses as well as those already in poor health, he said.

The Central Meteorological Observatory yesterday reported strong winds and snowfall in northern parts of China, according to the China News Service.

Snow fell yesterday in northern parts of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, some parts of Hebei Province and northern parts of Heilongjiang Province.

In parts of Xinjiang, the snowfall was as much as 4 to 6 millimetres.

Although snow has fallen in a number of places across the country, anecdotally many people report that there is much less than in bygone years, which they attribute to global warming.

"When I was young, it used to snow heavily several times in winter, but now it snows less and not as heavily," said Jing Peng, a Beijinger.

There is some scientific support for the warming-up theory. The global mean surface temperature for 2002 is higher than that of 2001, making it the second warmest year since instrumental records began, a Xinhua report quoted an expert with the World Meteorological Organization as saying on Tuesday.

(China Daily December 20, 2002)