Another cold front will hit northern China today, ending the last few days' respite from the region's early winter.

The Siberian front was forecast to sweep across northern parts of China from west to east starting last night, sending temperatures plummeting.

The State Meteorological Observatory said the mercury would plunge by as much as 4 to 10 ℃  around most of northern China. Some regions in Inner Mongolia and northeast China are likely to experience drops of 12 to 16 ℃ .

Snow and strong winds were expected to hit some parts of Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia autonomous regions last night. Residents of the north China Plain and Sichuan Basin will wake to fog this morning, according to the observatory.

With the cold air moving eastward, people in Sichuan, Chongqing, Guizhou, Hubei and Shanxi are likely to experience rain through Friday and snow is forecast for northeast China from Friday to Saturday.

The observatory said this week's front will be weaker than last week's, which caused nationwide falls in temperature and heavy precipitation.

"The coming cold front will move fast from west to east across northern China. It will bring strong winds to north China and northeast China, carrying sand to western parts of Gansu and Inner Mongolia," said Yang Guiming, an meteorological engineer with the observatory. According to the Beijing Meteorological Station, the cold front is likely to arrive in the capital city tomorrow, pushing down the mercury by several degrees. Winds of force 3 to 4 are expected on Saturday.

(China Daily November 13, 2003)