Winter has arrived. Today the city is expected to record an average temperate of below 10 degrees Celsius for the fifth day in a row.

The coming of winter had been expected as the season has arrived in during the first 10 days of December for the past five years.

Last year the official date was December 4, according to the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau's statistics.

Temperatures should reach 12 degrees today, up from yesterday's 11.6 degrees, and the drizzle will cease, said the bureau.

And it will be a little warmer over the weekend with thermometers registering between 14 and 15 degrees. It will be cloudy skies and dry and the relatively warm weather is likely to continue into the beginning of next week, the bureau forecast.

The rest of the country has been experiencing winter conditions, with falls of snow in northern areas. The forecast is for lower temperatures up to the winter solstice, December 22.

(Shanghai Daily December 8, 2007)