Heavy snow and cold temperatures on the mainland have gotten a lot of coverage in recent days…especially in the northeast. But it’s also been a period of unusual cold in many parts of East Asia. HPR’s Bill Dorman has more in today’s Asia Minute.
It’s been nearly sixty years since it’s been this cold in Hong Kong. 37-degree lows were chilly enough to cancel classes for primary school students on Monday. There’s snow on the ground in northern Vietnam, where local media report it’s only snowed in 5 of the last 30 years. In downtown Guangzhou, China there was sleet, the last time that happened, Chairman Mao was still a relative newcomer as leader of the country.
In several places the deep freeze has had tragic effects. Scores have died in Taiwan, largely because most homes don’t have central heating---since temperatures very rarely fall below forty degrees the way they have this week. On Okinawa, temperatures have been hovering right around forty degrees in recent nights….about twenty degrees colder than usual.
Even places that are used to cold weather have had new extremes in recent days. Two dozen Chinese cities have recorded record lows, and snow on South Korea’s Jeju Island stranded more than 70-thousand tourists due to cancelled flights. Pipes froze in Seoul as temperatures dipped below zero…but the place not to be was Inner Mongolia—where one location recorded a low of more than fifty degrees below zero.
