The Chinese capital and neighboring regions are expected to brace for this winter's first snowfall sometime between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning as another cold front sweeps most of central and eastern China, the National Meteorological Center (NMC) said.

He Lifu, NMC's top weather forecaster, said the cold front is forecast to sweep much of the country in the next three days and bring snowfalls for Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei Province and Inner Mongolia.

Most of Beijing is expected to see 1-3 millimeters of snow falling while the city's northern mountainous areas are forecast to have 3-5 millimeters of snowfall, he said.

He expected the snow falling to last about 12 hours and bring difficulties for the city's already-congested traffic. But the snowfall will also probably help to improve Beijing's air quality.

He said continuous dry weather so far this winter had delayed the first snowfall in Beijing and Tianjin for more than ten days in comparison with a normal winter.

Due to the cold front, temperatures will drop 4 to 6 degrees Celsius in central and eastern China, and 6 to 10 degrees Celsius in Northeast China and the eastern part of Inner Mongolia, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency December 9, 2008)