China's cold snap reaches Shanghai with chilliest year-end in 40 years

People shovel snow from an overpass after heavy snowfall in Yantai, in China's eastern Shandong province on Dec 20, 2023. - AFP

SHANGHAI: China's financial hub Shanghai was set to record its chilliest period in December in four decades, spurring authorities to issue warnings for low temperatures and wind, while northern cities battled icy conditions forecast to ease only next week.

The city's lowest temperatures on Thursday (Dec 21) will be minus 4 to minus 6 degrees Celsius (21 to 24 degrees Fahrenheit) in Shanghai's suburbs, and temperatures will remain below zero all day throughout the city, the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau said in a post on its Weibo social media account.