A wet cold chill hit Shanghai on Thursday cancelling dozens of long-distance buses and bursting two water pipes, as reported by Shanghai Daily.
Rain and sleet greeted locals in some parts of the city as they woke up. However, the city's temperatures ranging from 1 to 2 degrees Celsius on Thursday morning were not low enough for the ice to hold on the ground.
According to weather reports by the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau, the cold wave brought rains in the downtown portion of the city, as well as short-lived snowfalls in the west and northern portions on Thursday.
The districts of Qingpu, Songjiang, Jiading, Baoshan and Jinshan, as well as Chongming County, all recorded sleets on Thursday.
Weather forecasters predict that the next few days will be the coldest winter in 35 years, with the temperature in Shanghai set to go as low as minus 7 degrees Celsius in urban areas and as low as minus 10 in the suburban areas on Sunday.
The bureau predicted that the temperature will mostly go down due to stronger winds bringing a wind chill. It claims the weather will warm up a little on Tuesday, with temperatures going as low as minus 4 degrees Celsius and as high as 4 degrees Celsius.
The Shanghai Long-Distance Bus Terminal canceled a total of 45 buses to southern Anhui and Jiangsu Provinces, as well as to Hangzhou in Zhejiang Provinces. These places experienced heavy snowfall on Thursday.
The cancelation of buses affected a significant number of people with crowds already trying to leave for the Spring Festival holiday.
"I have no choice but to go back to school and wait," said a student whose bus was canceled. "I'll come back tomorrow to check again."
Icy roads caused the highways to close, preventing bus travels.
Shanghai South Long-Distance Bus Station was also forced to suspend 25 buses.
In Chongming County, the cold weather caused the main water pipe to burst at around five in the morning. This affected around 6,000 families.
The county government arranged for vehicles to deliver water to around 6,000 households in Chengqiao Town. Water supplies have since resumed with the repair of the pipes.