Photo Taken on Jan. 5, 2010 shows the traffic at a highway entrance in Jiujiang, southeast China's Jiangxi Province. The first snowfall hit Jiujiang on Tuesday. [Xinhua]

Most parts of China were seized by a sustained cold snap Wednesday, when the minimum temperature hit a 40-year low in Beijing and a rare snowstorm in the central Hubei Province kept all school children at home.

The Beijing weather bureau said the capital had its lowest temperature in 40 years at daybreak Wednesday, when the low was minus 16.7 degrees Celsius.

"The same temperature was recorded on Jan. 4, 1971," said Guo Hu, head of Beijing Meteorological Station.

The sun was out, however, and road traffic gradually returned to normal Wednesday, three days after the heaviest snow in decades hit Beijing. Many roads were still too slippery for new drivers and most senior citizens avoided going out.

The weather bureau has forecast more snow in two days.

"Parts of Beijing can expect light to moderate snow Friday," said chief weatherman Sun Jisong Wednesday.

He said the cold snap would persist and in the next 10 days, temperatures would stay below minus 3 degrees Celsius even at the warmest hours around noon. "The low temperature will be around minus 9 to minus 14."

In Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, 800,000 primary and secondary school students were told to stay home Wednesday as more than 10 centimeters of snow fell and the maximum temperature plunged 15 degrees Celsius to minus 3 degrees.

The snow began Tuesday afternoon and hit 16 cities and counties across Hubei, the provincial weather bureau said.

Local citizens walk in snow on a street in Yidu City, central China's Hubei Province, Jan. 5, 2010. Hubei Province witnessed the first snowfall in 2010 on Tuesday. The local observatory has issued yellow warning signal of snow to inform people of the inconvenience. [Xinhua]

In Daye, the worst-hit city, fresh snow measured 18 centimeters Wednesday morning, it said.

The National Meteorological Center has forecast snow in 12 provinces and autonomous regions Wednesday and Thursday, including Xinjiang in the far west, the three northeastern provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning, and Guizhou Province in the southwest.

The deep freeze that began to hit most parts of China last weekend has challenged fuel and power supplies.

The Beijing Electric Power Company restricted natural gas supplies to department stores, supermarkets, office buildings and other enterprises from Wednesday to ensure uninterrupted supplies to homes.

Central and eastern China have reported a power crunch and some cities have restricted power supplies, according to the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), the leading power grid operator.