China issues blue alert for blizzards

BEIJING -- China's meteorological authority on Wednesday renewed a blue alert for heavy snow in certain regions of the country.

From Wednesday morning to Thursday morning, snowstorms will hit parts of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, and Jiangsu, with the snowfall expected to reach 2 cm to 5 cm, the National Meteorological Center said.

The meteorological center advised authorities to take note of the influence of extensive rain, snow, and freezing weather during the ongoing Spring Festival travel rush, also known as "chunyun," which will see hundreds of millions of people return home to reunite with their friends and families.

It has advised pedestrians and drivers to be extra careful during the snowy weather and urged local authorities to take precautions with regard to roads, railways, electricity, and telecommunications.

China has a four-tier, color-coded weather warning system, with red representing the most severe weather, followed by orange, yellow, and blue.

The current round of rain, snow, and freezing disasters has a wide range of impacts, including large cumulative rain and snow amounts, long duration, complex rain and snow phases, and large freezing rain areas. As a whole, it is the strongest in winter since 2009, said the Ministry of Emergency Management on Wednesday.

The ministry thus decided to launch a Level IV emergency response, the least severe one in China's emergency response system, for the disaster in the provinces of Hebei, Shanxi, Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, and Shaanxi.