A new round of cold weather will hit central and east China from Wednesday to next Tuesday, bringing a wide range of heavy snow and rain, which will affect the ongoing Spring Festival travel rush, the National Meteorological Center said on Tuesday.

The national observatory said that light to moderate snow or sleet hit the Ili River valley in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, central and southern parts of northwest China's Qinghai Province, southeastern part of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region as well as some regions in northeast and north China on Tuesday.

Among these areas, some parts of Qinghai Province experienced a temperature of minus 31.8 degrees Celsius due to the local snowy weather from Monday. The local meteorological department projected that most parts of the province will go through continuous snowy weather from Tuesday night till Saturday.

On Wednesday, freezing rain will hit the northern part of central China's Hubei Province, while moderate to heavy rain will affect some places in eastern parts of Jianghuai region and Jianghan region, the northern part of Jiangnan, a region located south of the Yangtze River, as well as northern part of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

(Cover image via CFP)