Snow slows traffic on the streets and in the air
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The city's main roads and runways were hit hard by yet another snow to rain over the capital yesterday.
A resident in Tongzhou surnamed Zhang said public transport was badly affected.
"My bus snailed along the expressway, making the trip from my home in Tongzhou to downtown Beijing at least 40 minutes longer," Zhang said.
The Beijing-Tongzhou expressway authority said the congestion was due to heavy snow, the Monday morning rush hour, and the temporary traffic control in the neighboring area of Sihui Bridge, according to the Mirror Evening News on Monday.
At the same time, more than 30 long-distance bus lines were temporarily taken out of operation due to the ice and snow. More than 60 long-distance shuttle buses were canceled.
Air traffic was also impacted by the snow yesterday.
"By 11:30 am, 75 flights were canceled and 94 flights delayed at the Beijing Capital International Airport," said a spokesperson surnamed Zhang with the airport.
The snow, which lasted from Sunday night till yesterday morning, was the heaviest since Spring Festival concluded last month. According to data collected by the local weather bureau, the number of snowy days this winter surpassed the average for the last 10 winters.
Sun Jisong, chief forecaster with the bureau, said the average snowfall in Beijing was 4.5 mm by 4 pm yesterday.
"The snow was quite heavy compared to March in previous years," Sun said.
The bureau predicted that since the temperature will drop to -10 C in the coming evenings, and never be higher than 1C, the snow would not melt completely over the next couple of days.
"According to the data, winter will not give place to spring until March 20," Sun said.
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