Dry Beijing to miss out on snow

BEIJING - Beijing is likely to say goodbye to winter without any snow, with meteorologists not even forecasting any precipitation in the coming week.

Traces of snow were seen in the capital's suburbs in the small hours of Saturday. It soon disappeared before sunrise.

It was the first precipitation in Beijing since October 22.

"Actually, it did not qualify as snow by meteorological standards. The southern part of city had snow, but only 0.2 mm," said Guo Jinlan, chief weatherwoman of the Beijing Meteorological Bureau.

It can only be classed as snowing in Beijing when more than half of the city's 20 observatories identify its presence, or when at least three of the five downtown observatories see snowfall above 0.1 mm, Guo said.

Beijing has had a warm and dry winter with no heavy rainfall for more than 100 days, resulting in a high risk of fires and poor air quality.

"Winter is coming to an end as February 4 is the 'beginning of spring' on the Chinese lunar calendar, but there will be no rainfall in the coming week. We will have a snowless winter," said Guo.

Meteorologists said it could not rule out the possibility of snow as the first flakes in 2010 fell on February 10.