Delayed snow arouses health concerns

The first snow this winter in Beijing is unlikely to fall until early next year, and people are more likely to get respiratory problems in dry weather, according to experts.

Beijing has seen nearly zero precipitation for 68 days, Beijing Evening News reported.

According to Weather China, a weather forecast website managed by the public meteorological service center under the China Meteorological Administration, there will be no snowfall in the city this week, and the average temperature is forecast as 1 C, which is “obviously higher” than the same period in years before, when the average temperature was between - 2 C and - 3 C.

Li Xiaoquan, chief meteorological expert at Weather China, told Beijing Evening News there is not enough moist air coming from either Southwest or East China, making it unlikely Beijing will see any snowfall soon.

Sun Jisong, chief weather forecaster of the Beijing Meteorological Bureau, also said no snow is expected in Beijing before 2014.

Since 1951, there have been five times when Beijing's first winter snowfall took place in the new year, Li said. The first snowfall in the winter from the end of 2010 to early 2011 fell on Feb 10, which was the latest first snowfall since 1951.

It's more likely people will catch colds or flu viruses in such dry air, as many viruses that cause respiratory problems can float around more easily, said Wang Guangfa, director of the respiration medicine department of Peking University First Hospital.

However, he said currently he hasn't seen an obvious increase of patients having respiratory problems from the same period of last year, as the temperature is not very low.

Beijing's flu season is from December to January, but neither the number of flu-like symptoms nor the proportion of positive flu virus among the cases tested in December is higher than last year, Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the city's center for disease control and prevention, told China Daily.