Beijing records coldest December in 72 years

Beijing, the capital of China, has seen the coldest December in 2023 since records first date back in 1951 with the city having multiple instances of temperatures below -10C.

The metropolis has experienced extremes this year: six months ago, Beijing saw its warmest June day ever, with a temperature of little over 40C, reported BBC.

This winter, China has already experienced multiple rounds of bitterly cold temperatures.

According to the state-run China Daily news agency, a Beijing weather observatory recently recorded more than 300 hours of below-freezing temperatures in less than two weeks.

China's provinces have been impacted by the cold snap; in certain places, schools have had to close, and transport systems are having trouble.

The province of Henan's energy sources are under stress due to the ongoing cold, with reports of some heating boilers breaking down.

In the meantime, significant snowfall has fallen in certain areas of northern Japan, far more than is typical for this time of year.

Over the previous two days, there have been heavy snow alerts for some locations; in the prefectures of Gifu and Hokkaido, about a metre (39 inches) of snow has fallen.