However, the warmer weather may fluctuate due to interspersing cold air, CCTV said, advising the public need heed forecasts and dress accordingly.
Eastern province Shandong’s observatory warned on Friday of temperatures as low as -20 degrees Celsius in some mountainous areas in the province’s northwest.
This week, China’s north including capital Beijing, its surrounding Hebei and Tianjin, Henan, Inner Mongolia, and northeastern provinces Liaoning and Heilongjiang have logged historically their coldest temperatures for the middle of December.
Temperatures in some of these areas and also in parts of the south will be 5 degrees Celsius cooler than the usual from Friday to Monday, China’s National Meteorological Center said.
In China’s financial hub Shanghai, temperatures in most parts of the city on Friday morning ranged from -6 degrees Celsius to -4 degrees Celsius, breaking seasonal records.
In Beijing, city authorities rushed to fix a leak in a thermal pipe network that supplies heating to buildings in central Dongcheng district.
Repair work for the section leaking, discovered before dawn, halted some traffic but did not affect residential users, the official Beijing Daily said.
Across China, heating demand has risen as many northern provinces rewrote records after temperatures plunged below -30 degrees Celsius in some cities.
Peak electricity loads were up by 100 million kilowatts on last year’s high, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday.
This equated to an increase of around 8.6 per cent, Reuters calculations based on data from China’s state planner showed.
But ample heating fuel stocks from bumper production mean China has not needed to ramp up imports of coal and natural gas to meet the record power loads, according to traders.
Source: CNA
