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China Braces for Blistering Cold This Week

A worker installs light bulbs decoration on snow covered trees along a street for the upcoming Christmas festival and year-end season in Beijing, Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023. (AP)
A worker installs light bulbs decoration on snow covered trees along a street for the upcoming Christmas festival and year-end season in Beijing, Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023. (AP)
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China Braces for Blistering Cold This Week

A worker installs light bulbs decoration on snow covered trees along a street for the upcoming Christmas festival and year-end season in Beijing, Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023. (AP)
A worker installs light bulbs decoration on snow covered trees along a street for the upcoming Christmas festival and year-end season in Beijing, Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023. (AP)

Chinese authorities warned on Tuesday of heavy snowfall, blizzards and plunging temperatures this week in most parts of the country in what could be one of the coldest December snaps in China in decades.

Beijing is expected to be hit by temperatures as low as minus 18 Celsius (minus 0.4 Fahrenheit) this weekend compared to around minus 8C (17.6F) on average in mid-December. Even Shanghai in the south could be buffeted by weather as frigid as minus 4C (24.8F) on Saturday through Sunday, unusual for this time of the year.

Parts of north, northwest and south China, as well as parts of the Inner Mongolia region, Guizhou province and even regions south of the Yangtze River, could see temperatures slide by more than 14 degrees Celsius, the National Meteorological Center (NMC) cautioned.

It has called on local governments to take precautions against the cold weather, advised the public to keep warm, and urged measures to be taken to protect tropical crops and aquatic produce.

Many rivers in Heilongjiang, a vast northeastern province that shares a border with Russia, have already frozen over.

Also on Tuesday, the China Meteorological Administration activated a Level-II emergency response - its second-highest emergency response level - for the cold wave and blizzards.

In Beijing, more than 6,000 people have been put on call for any road emergency rescues and 2,200 sets of snow-removal equipment and machinery are on standby for deployment.

Additionally, 32,000 tons of snow-thawing agent is ready for use on icy roads and motorways.

The Chinese capital last saw such cold weather on Jan. 7, 2021, when the temperature fell to minus 19.6C (minus 3.3F).

The cold snap in Beijing this week, compared with the autumn-like conditions a week ago, reflects the sharp oscillations in temperatures recently. In October, Beijing experienced one of its warmest Octobers in decades in a year of weather extremes.

Beijing's all-time low temperature was minus 27.4°C (minus 17.3F), set on Feb. 22, 1966. (Reporting by Ryan Woo Editing by Frances Kerry)

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Varieties

S.Africa's Iconic Protea Flower Relocates as Climate Warms

Protea flower grower Nico Thuynsma cultivates the blooms north of Johannesburg, 1,500 km (930 miles) from their natural home at the southern tip of Africa. Phill Magakoe / AFP
Protea flower grower Nico Thuynsma cultivates the blooms north of Johannesburg, 1,500 km (930 miles) from their natural home at the southern tip of Africa. Phill Magakoe / AFP
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S.Africa's Iconic Protea Flower Relocates as Climate Warms

Protea flower grower Nico Thuynsma cultivates the blooms north of Johannesburg, 1,500 km (930 miles) from their natural home at the southern tip of Africa. Phill Magakoe / AFP
Protea flower grower Nico Thuynsma cultivates the blooms north of Johannesburg, 1,500 km (930 miles) from their natural home at the southern tip of Africa. Phill Magakoe / AFP

On his farm two hours north of Johannesburg, Nico Thuynsma gestured towards thousands of orange, yellow and pink proteas in flower and thriving 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) from their natural home at the southern tip of Africa.

"They're all different," the 55-year-old farmer said of the assorted blooms from the diverse Proteaceae family that has more than 350 species in South Africa, from firework-like "pincushion" varieties to delicate "blushing brides".

He picked out a majestic pink and white crown, nearly the size of his head, that has taken four years to reach its impressive size. "The King Proteas are very slow to grow," Thuynsma said.

The largest of the proteas, the King Protea, is South Africa's national flower.

It has lent its name to the national cricket team and countless brands. It features on the currency and is the logo for South Africa's presidency this year of the G20 group of leading economies, which convenes a summit in November.

It is also the country's largest flower export with more than 10 million stems sent abroad last year, worth close to 275 million rand ($15 million), according to the Cape Flora industry organization, said AFP.

Its status offers the King Protea some protection but almost half of South Africa's other protea species face extinction because of pressures on their native habitats in the mountains of the Cape, according to South Africa's National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI).

These include habitat loss to agriculture, the proliferation of invasive alien species and "changes to natural fire cycles", SANBI said in a 2021 report.

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"People come to South Africa to see proteas," Nigel Barker, a professor in plant sciences at the University of Pretoria, told AFP. "It's the plant equivalent of the elephant or the lion."

Most proteas are endemic or semi-endemic to the Cape Floral Kingdom biome of "fynbos" ("fine bush") that stretches across the southern tip of South Africa and is one of the world's richest flora biodiversity hotspots.

But climate projections predict "hotter, drier conditions", Barker said. "We'll be looking at a completely different vegetation type in the future, semi-desert almost in some places."

"Many species, because they're so range-restricted, will probably go extinct under those scenarios," he said.

"The only solution we have is to cultivate them artificially... in greenhouses or farms where you control irrigation," Barker said.

An example is Thuynsma's farm in the grasslands of the north, where he began planting proteas three decades ago.

Here, winters are dry and frosty, and the summers rainy -- conditions very different to those in the far south where the proteas are at home.

Gel for irrigation

Through trial and error, Thuynsma has been able to cultivate close to 200 protea varieties, including some long forgotten and abandoned by farmers in their original habitats.

In his latest experiment, he has planted 36 varieties with just two liters (four pints) of saturated gel for irrigation.

"I hope to unlock the power of some of these varieties," Thuynsma said. "They come from the Western Cape out of very harsh conditions, so they do have it in them."

"I learn from them, I learn with them. And, hopefully, in the future I can advise my nursery public -- and even estates -- how to plant this lovely fynbos without irrigation," he said.

"I don't think I have a solution for climate change," he joked, crouched over a small seedling in freshly turned soil. "But I do have a solution: to plant proteas."

A few meters (yards) away, in a warm nursery, thousands of protea sprouts awaited their turn in the soil.

"I love them, I protect them, I collect them," Thuynsma said. "The protea is part of South Africa's DNA."