Shanghai shivers in cold snap

The cold snap snarled up the local ferry service yesterday, as gales swept the mouth of the Yangtze River.

Electricity demand reached more than 15 million kilowatts yesterday morning, the week's peak, about 1.3 million kilowatts more than Thursday's peak, power authorities said.

"The power demand reached the peak about 10:35am," said Wang Changxing, an official with the Shanghai Electric Company.

Wang said people were not used to the sudden cold weather, and almost all office buildings had turned on their heating, causing soaring demand. The power demand was expected to drop at the weekend.

The Shanghai Gas Company, however, said gas demand in the city was not greatly affected.

Yesterday, the maximum temperature was only 4.9 degrees Celsius, a new record low for this fall, weathermen said.

Although today's minimum temperature will drop to below freezing, from yesterday's 2.9 degrees, the influence of the cold snap is expected to weaken, and temperatures will once again begin to rise. It will be sunny with some cloud-cover from now until the beginning of next week.

The lowest temperature in the city this morning is expected to be minus 1 degree Celsius, with suburbs ranging from minus 2 to minus 4 degrees. Frost is forecasted this morning.

Today, the high will rise to 8 degrees. From tomorrow the maximum temperature is expected to be back above 10 degrees, with lows ranging between 1 and 4 degrees.

Local hospitals also advised residents to keep warm.

"There is an increase of patients after a few days of continuous cold weather," said Zhang Mili from Ruijin Hospital. "The elderly and those with cardiovascular problems should take extra care."

"Cold air can lead to respiratory syndromes, so parents should keep their children warm and teach children proper hygienic habits," said Xia Lin from Shanghai Children's Medical Center.

"But it is also wrong to wrap children up too much."

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