This is Beijing-Beijing English blog

Beijing reported the first high-temperature alarm of this year on Monday, said Beijing Meteorological Bureau.

The alarm, reported at 11:20 a.m., was an Orange Alarm, the second level of meteorological alarms, saying the highest temperature will reach 37 degrees Celsius Monday afternoon, according to the bureau.

“The sunshine has been strong, the air has been dry and the winds have been strong these days in Beijing. The weather of this kind is defined as dry hot wind,” said Guo Hu, head of the bureau.

The dry hot wind usually appears in north China in May and June, which harms crops, especially wheat, but does no harm to people, Guo said.

The temperature in Beijing had been two-to-three degrees Celsius higher than usual since May, Guo said.

The city might be cooler on late Monday as cold air may bring thunderstorms, Guo said.

The temperature might be lower on Tuesday but will likely remain 32 degrees Celsius, he said.

The northeast Tianjin Municipality also reported its highest temperature of this year on Monday afternoon, which reached 38.9 degrees Celsius and broke the record of the same period since 1951, said Zhao Gang, chief weather forecaster of Tianjin Meteorological Bureau.

It should be 31 degrees Celsius on Tuesday and might rain on Thursday and Friday, Zhao said.

They said it was unknown if abnormal temperatures are a result of global warming.

From last weekend, the weather become very warm. And today the hightest temperature get to 29.2 degrees centigrade, this is the highest record temperature at this season from 1950.

People become to wear less cloths; Lots of cars open the window  and some even begin to use the AC.

But according to the weather forecast, there will be cool air at night of 20th, and the temperature will come down to its normal as 15 to 17 degrees centigrade.

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It began to rain from this morning. Though it is not heavy rain, it is still welcomed by the people as the rainless day has been lasted for 110 days.

Beijing has no rain for more than 100 days before, the dry and thirty earth has wait the rain for a long time.

The rain from morning last to the evening, and it ease the drought situation to some extent.

Beijing saw 24 official “blue sky” days, or days with fairly good air quality, in January, which city authorities have hailed as a sign that years of anti-pollution efforts are paying off.

 The number of blue sky days was two more than January last year, and a 10-year high, said the Municipal Bureau of Environmental Protection.

 Meanwhile, major pollution indices, including concentrations of sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter in the air, continued to drop markedly, said the bureau.

 The number of blue sky days rose to 274 last year from 100 in 1998, when the capital launched the blue sky drive.

It was a very cold day in Beijing yesterday. According to the media reports,  the hightest temperature yesterday is minus 8.8 degrees centigrade. That is the coldest day in December in 57 years in Beijing. The strong wind tell people the real winter begins.

From some medias, there is one report nearly the same which tells an interesting story. One man who repair his roof was blew away to a 15 meters tree, and finally the firefighters saved him from the tree.

On 31Nov, as it is a clear sky day, Beijing achieved the goal of blue sky this year. Blue sky means a day when the city’s air pollution is below 100 on the air pollution index (API). The API at noon yesterday was 85.

The measures that helped achieve the target include the temporary arrangements made for the Olympics such as allowing vehicles with odd and even numbers to run on alternate days and shutting down polluting factories, Wang Dawei, head of the air quality control division of the bureau, said.

Beijing saw just 100 clear days in 1999, the year when the authorities launched their anti-pollution campaign. Thanks to their constant efforts, the number of blue-sky days last year rose to 246.

As part of the clean air program, the authorities shifted most of the high-polluting plants, including that of steel giant Shougang Group, out of the city, and replaced them with green facilities. Stricter fuel emission rules, too, were implemented, with gas stations revamped to curb petroleum vaporization.

Beijing will launch tougher air cleaning programs from Jan 1 by shifting more coal-burning industries out of the city and banning heavy polluting cars.

The weather is getting very cold. That is what i feel after i came back from India. Especialy on Nov 19th, when i reached Beijing, It is so cold.

The low temperature is 0 degrees today, and the high temperature is 11 degrees. I think it is even more cold in the eraly moning. Maybe sometimes the lowest tempeature can reach minus 3 degrees or something like that. So if you come to Beijing in the recent days. You would better prepare some warm clothes.

Personally, i like the winter season very much. Sometimes we should feel the cold weather as it is part of the nature and also part of our life.