Weather Extremes in China, page 1

Hi All,

BEIJING (AFP) - Tens of millions of people in China's far northeast who were recently experiencing their warmest winter in 40 years are now enduring their heaviest snowfalls in a decade.

More than 22 centimetres (nine inches) of snow fell on Tuesday and Wednesday this week across areas of Heilongjiang province, Xinhua news agency reported Thursday.

The heavy weather has caused chaos for people in Heilongjiang -- which has a population of more than 38 million -- trying to travel home for Sunday's Lunar New Year, with bus services having to be cancelled, Xinhua said.

Four major freeways connecting cities inside the province with the rest of China were closed Tuesday evening due to snow and ice, and had yet to reopen, Xinhua said.

The news agency said the snowfalls were the heaviest there in 10 years, after reporting early this month that the province bordering Russia was experiencing its warmest winter for 40 years.

China's chief meteorologist told reporters this month that the increasingly extreme weather bore the hallmarks of global warming.

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This is very much what we here in the northeastern part of the US are expriencing. It makes me wonder just how much more "strange" our weather will become. At this point I am not too much surprised by our weather "strangeness". It is almost normal to me if that makes any kind of sense.