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Freeze hits southern China

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Source: CCTV.com | 12-25-2008 08:33

Most provinces in southern China are seeing their first snow of the winter, as a major cold front moves south. Dropping temperatures have caused freezing conditions in some areas. The affected provinces are taking measures to prevent problems caused by ice.

Most provinces in southern China are seeing their first snow of the winter, as a major cold front moves south.
Most provinces in southern China are seeing their first snow 
of the winter, as a major cold front moves south.

Sharp temperature drops over three days froze the snow that fell steadily on the highways of Guizhou Province. Traffic restrictions have been carried out, and some icy roads have been closed. To ease blocked traffic, road conditions will be updated by the traffic command center via radio twice per day.

In Guangdong, to ensure the smooth flow of traffic before Spring Festival, the province has mobilized 22 snow-clearing machines carrying out drills to deal with any possible deep freeze.

To prevent power facilities from being damaged during the cold spell, power companies in Hunan and Guizhou provinces have installed ice melting devices.

Tian Jie, technical director, Ice-melting Devices Project, said, "The device will start to work when the thickness of ice reaches 10 millimeters. The melting will be done within one hour."