Three major highways in Northeast China's Jilin province were closed Monday following an overnight snowstorm.

The Changchun-Jilin-Tumen highway, the belt highway around the provincial capital Changchun city and Changchun-Liaoyuan highway were all closed, according to the provincial traffic police. It is not known when the highways will be reopened.

The provincial meteorological station issued a blue alert, which is the lightest of the alerts, early Monday morning as snow could reach four millimeters or above on the ground within 12 hours in several cities.

The Changchun Longjia International Airport was also forced to close at 9:59 pm Sunday due to the heavy snow, stranding thousands of people. But the airport managed to reopen at around 2 pm Monday after more than twenty hours of de-icing, according to an airport official.