Cold blasts are in the forecast for northern parts of the country from Monday to Saturday, resulting in precipitation in these areas from the west to the east and pushing out air pollution around the capital, authorities said.

According to the National Meteorological Center, a cold blast that entered the country in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region on Sunday is expected to result in snow or sleet in northern Xinjiang, western Inner Mongolia autonomous region and the western part of Gansu province on Monday. Some areas in Xinjiang, including Altay and Tacheng prefectures, may be hit by heavy snow and a snowstorm.

In addition to strong winds, many areas in the north, including Gansu and Shaanxi provinces, will experience a temperature decrease of up to 10 C, the center said on Monday.

As the cold air moves towards the east, snow and sleet will engulf the eastern part of Northwest China, central and eastern parts of Inner Mongolia autonomous region, and the northern part of North China and Northeast China from Wednesday to Saturday, it added.

It also said the eastern part of Northeast China and eastern Gansu province might be hit with heavy snow on Wednesday and Thursday. There will be a temperature decrease of 6 to 10 C in these regions.

Meanwhile, because of unfavorable meteorological conditions for air pollutant dispersal, central and southern parts of North China and the Fenhe and Weihe river plains, mostly located in Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces, will be stricken by a bout of haze from Monday to Thursday, the center said.

In North China, the smog mainly affected southern parts of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cluster on Monday, with mostly light to moderate pollution. The pollution, however, will increase both in size of the affected areas and the pollution level on the second day, according to China National Environmental Monitoring Center.

It said Beijing municipality and Shijiazhuang, Baoding, Tangshan and Langfang in Hebei province may be stricken by heavy air pollution from Tuesday to Thursday because of "temperature inversions", which prevent the normal churn of the atmosphere, and "high humidity".

The haze will gradually clear up from north to south thanks to strong cold air from the north and rainfall from Thursday night, the monitoring center said.

"Cold air may arrive in northern parts of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cluster on Thursday. Slow in speed, however, it will fail to quickly take away the pollutants. Most of the pollutants are expected to be cleared on Friday," the National Joint Research Center on Air Pollution Causes and Control said in a statement on Monday.

The monitoring center also said sand and dust affecting northeastern Xinjiang may also result in moderate to heavy air pollution from Monday to Wednesday.

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