21-12-2023 (SHANGHAI) Shanghai, the bustling Chinese financial capital, is experiencing its coldest period in December in over 40 years as a days-long cold snap blankets the city. Weather warnings for low temperatures and wind have been issued on Thursday, December 21, setting the stage for Shanghai’s chilliest days in recent memory.
The Shanghai Meteorological Bureau took to its Weibo social media account to announce that the city’s suburbs will witness temperatures ranging from minus 4 to minus 6 degrees Celsius on Thursday. Moreover, temperatures throughout the entire city are expected to remain below freezing all day long.
Wang Kaiyun, a 59-year-old cleaner who commutes from the city’s suburbs to downtown Shanghai on an electric scooter, shared her experience of enduring the bitter cold. She revealed that the temperature was a bone-chilling minus 5 degrees during her one-hour ride on Thursday. Despite wearing gloves, Wang stated that she quickly lost feeling in her hands, which continue to ache even now.
While Shanghai’s temperatures are still relatively milder compared to the frigid conditions in northern China, where numerous provinces have witnessed historically low temperatures in recent weeks, the persistent cold weather is highly unusual for Shanghai.
The city’s weather bureau predicts that one downtown reading station will experience below-zero temperatures for a consecutive five-day period until December 25. This extended cold spell in December is a rare occurrence, unprecedented in the last 40 years.
