Snow fell in downtown Beijing early Tuesday morning, driving the temperature below zero.

A resident living in Shijingshan district clears snow on the road in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 17, 2009. Beijing welcomes its first snow after the Spring Festival. [Xinhua]

This was the second precipitation this winter following a drizzle enhanced by artificial rain last Thursday, but the rain was not enough to end the lingering drought.

The Beijing Meteorological Bureau forecast snow through Tuesday night and during Wednesday daytime. The highest temperature on Tuesday was forecast as one degree Celsius below zero.

Bureau chief Guo Hu said the city received an average snowfall of 1 mm in the morning.

Zhang Qiang, deputy director of the Beijing Weather Modification Command Center, said that the center has used artificial means to increase the snow in order to ease the drought.

A total of 426 cigarette-size sticks of silver iodide were seeded into clouds from 28 weather rocket launch bases in the city, said Zhang.

The snow brought difficulties to the morning rush-hour traffic. Beijing Communication Radio said there were more accidents Tuesday morning than normal.

The Beijing Public Transport Holdings Ltd. said that buses on 16 lines were suspended because of safety concerns. The company also mobilized 1,000 staff and 2,000 volunteers on roads to help maintain traffic flow.

"We started the snow removal work as early as 4:00 a.m.. Highways were sprayed to prevent ice from freezing," said Wang Chunlei, an environment sanitation worker.

The environment department said that the city used 443 tonnes of material to prevent ice on roads on Tuesday morning.

The snow has been longed for, since urban Beijing had not seen a flake for the whole winter, though sporadic flurries fell in the suburbs on Dec. 10 and 23, according to the city's meteorological bureau.

The capital was enduring its longest drought in 38 years, according to the bureau's records. The city had not seen rain since Oct. 24.

The bureau said the northern part of the city would have the largest amount of snow, but did not forecast the snow's effect on easing the drought.

The bureau chief said cold air was active over the city this week, with a high temperature of around zero.