World Wide Weird Weather as Snow Kills BJ Street Cleaners

It seems north China isn’t the only region experiencing extreme weather conditions. As Beijing deals with the aftermath of the heaviest snowfalls in more than half a century, parts of Europe and the US are also buried under unusually thick layers of snow, while Greece and Israel enjoy unseasonably warm conditions.

Today (Monday, January 11) The Guardian carried a roundup of the unusual global weather. Heavy snow has caused road chaos and hundreds of flight cancellations in Germany and France. Many parts of the US have also experienced colder than average temperatures and heavy snowfalls.

Meanwhile Crete experienced temperatures of 30 degree Celsius on New Year’s Day, which according to The Guardian is “the highest temperature ever recorded in Europe in January.” In Israel, sunbathers have been enjoying days in the high 20s, rather than the “January average of around 12C.”

As we all know, Beijing suffered heavy snowfalls in early January, but the storms were far more devastating in Xinjiang, where The Guardian claims the snow “flattened almost 8,00 houses and damaged another 5,000.” The Global Times reported the same figures on its front page today, stating, “More than 260,000 people were affected by the blizzard in the Tacheng and Altay regions last week, resulting in blackouts… The heavy snow also flattened 799 homes and damaged almost 5,000 others in the region.”

Electricity has been in short supply in much of central and southern China over the past week as a result of the cold snap. According to the Global Times:

“In order to prevent blackouts, power authorities in Hubei decided to ration power for industry, with a focus on guaranteeing the power supply to residential areas, hospitals, schools, financial institutions and key transport hubs. Six other provinces and regions including Shanghai, Jiangsu, Hubei, Hebei, Hunan, Jiangxi provinces and Chongqing Municipality have also reported power cuts, resulting in the disruption of production and complaints from residents.”

The Wall Street Journal blames the power shortages partly on central government control of energy prices: “…while coal prices have been liberalized, state-set electricity prices have been kept relatively low. That’s discouraged power producers from keeping costly inventories of coal. Low inventory levels have left China’s huge sprawling power grid vulnerable to sudden shocks like the current cold snap, forcing some provinces to ration power to industrial users so there’s enough to keep homes, hospitals and schools warm.”

In more bizarrely tragic news, the Global Times print edition today reported that clearing the snow has been all too much for some Beijing street cleaners. An article entitled “Unprepared for city’s blizzard” claimed, “Some street cleaners and volunteers died or were injured when working around the clock for five days to clean up the snow.”

The article continues: “Qi Langen, 60, suddenly feel to the ground and died when he volunteered to help clean up the snow in his community on January 4… Qi had worked for three days to help neighbors clean up the snow and died of a heart attack…Wang Changrong, a street cleaner, came around Saturday after four days in a coma. He was hospitalized for a cerebral hemorrhage after working non-stop for four days.”

According to the article more than 6,500 tons of snow and ice have been removed from Beijing’s streets.