It will put the brakes on the recent spell of relatively warm weather, which saw temperatures nudge above 20 C in some areas of the North this week.

Cold winds will affect parts of Northwest, North, and Northeast China's provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, including Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Beijing, Jilin and Liaoning, over the next three days, according to forecasters.

"With this cold front and dust heading down, northern China might experience the strongest sandstorms it has seen so far this spring," forecasters from the Central Meteorological Office announced yesterday on its official website.

Heavy sandstorms will probably hit the mid-west Gansu Province and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, along with its southeastern area, in the next two to three days, they said.

During such storms, transportation, particularly aeroplane take-offs and landings as well as traffic on expressways, can be affected since visibility is drastically reduced.

The cold front will also bring snow to the mid-east of the Inner Mongolian region and areas throughout Northeast China's provinces.

Temperatures in the areas are predicted to plummet by up to 10 C by Tuesday, with some parts of the country even experiencing drops of 16 C.

In the South, the cold front could see temperatures drop to below freezing.

The northern parts of the areas south of the Yangtze River will be worst affected.

(China Daily March 9, 2006)