Northeast China's Liaoning Province closed 14 of its 15 highways Friday, due to a cold snap that hit the region on Thursday night bringing freezing temperatures and snow.

The meteorological station in Shenyang, Liaoning's capital, issued a snow storm alert Friday morning, and forecast that temperatures would drop to 24 degree Celsius below freezing on Saturday in the province's northern areas.

The snow continued in Shenyang this morning, causing rush hour traffic difficulties.

The highway to the capital's airport was closed this morning. The Taoxian International Airport said it had reduced flights, as the runway was getting slippery.

The National Meteorological Center said the blizzard that began in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Tuesday night had abated, but temperatures had kept plunging.

The cold snap, a result of extremely cold air temperatures in western Siberia, was moving southeastward, bringing wind and snow, and temperatures would drop by an average 10 degrees Celsius in the northwestern provinces of Gansu, Qinghai, Shaanxi and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

The center forecast heavy snow in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and the three northeast provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning over the next couple of days.