Temperatures in Beijing could plunge to their lowest in almost three decades during this weekend, weather forecasters said yesterday, Dec. 22, 2012.

They were expected to drop to minus 15 degrees Celsius in urban areas.

Beijingers started to feel the freezing weather yesterday. This is caused by a cold spell from Siberia that arrived on Friday night, Wang Hua, chief forecaster of Beijing Meteorological Observatory said.

Chen Dagang, a meteorological forecaster at the observatory, said the capital's lowest temperature in recent decades was minus 15.2 degrees Celsius, recorded in 1985.

Wang said in Beijing's mountainous northern suburbs temperatures today could drop to minus 20 degrees Celsius.

However, he said they would rise again in the capital on Monday.

Yesterday, fewer people were on Beijing's streets, with Tian'anmen Square, usually a tourist hot spot, quiet.

"Your hands go numb in just a few minutes. Cameras also work slowly due to the cold," said a woman surnamed Zhou, who works on the square.

Most parts of the country, except the central and southwestern regions, will see temperatures fall by six to eight degrees over the next couple of days.

Some parts of north and northeast China will witness a drop of 10 to 14 degrees Celsius, said the observatory.

Yesterday, the National Meteorological Center (NMC) kept its blue alert for cold weather, the least severe in a four level disaster alerts scale.

Yesterday morning, temperatures in parts of Xinjiang, Qinghai, Tibet, Gansu, Shanxi, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Jilin, Fujian and Guangxi dropped by six to 10 degrees Celsius, while they tumbled by up to 16 degrees Celsius in parts of Liaoning and Jilin.

The NMC also forecast snow for parts of Xinjiang, Gansu, Inner Mongolia and Hebei while heavy snow for Shandong Province.

Parts of south China and Guizhou Province will see sleet, while freezing rain will fall on west and central Guizhou, said forecasters.