© APA visitor climbs a snow hill before the opening of the annual Harbin Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival in Harbin in China's northeast Heilongjiang province, on Jan 5, 2018
Temperatures hit a low this winter of -44.5 deg C in Mohe, China's northernmost county in Heilongjiang province, according to Mr Wu Shusen, a senior engineer at the county's observatory.
"The temperature over the following two days will be around -46 deg C and it is expected to drop to -47 deg C on Thursday," Mr Wu said. "Then the temperature will increase slightly on Friday."
The region, regarded as the coldest in China, usually sees winters lasting eight months. Its record low is -52.3 deg C.
It's my first time in Beiji village in Mohe where I originally planned to experience the extreme cold," said Ms Xia Tian, 29, a tourist from Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. "However, I never imagined that it would be so cold before I got here on Saturday."
Comment: If this develops into a another deep freeze blast, it will be the 3rd time this winter that has happened. See here and here. It seems that we are inching ever closer to beginnings of an ice age. See also: