China's Central Meteorological Station (CMS) on Sunday evening issued the third orange alert since the first one on Saturday, extending the warning against a strong cold wave and strong wind.

Temperature was expected to fall by 14 to 18 degrees Celsius from Sunday night to Tuesday in central Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Shaanxi Province and the western parts in regions along the Yellow and Huaile rivers, or 16 to 18 degrees Celsius in some of these regions, according to the CMS.

The country's north and central areas, including eastern parts of the northwest China, north China, Guizhou Province, Chongqing, and some regions in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, would suffer a temperature plunge by 8 to 12 degrees Celsius, said the CMS.

From Tuesday to Wednesday morning, temperature in the northern parts of north China was forecasted to slump to minus 20 to 32 degrees Celsius, and the central and south regions in north China and areas long the Yellow and Huaihe rivers would drop to minus 10 to 18 degrees Celsius.

The CMS issued the first orange alert against cold wave on Saturday, and the second one on Sunday morning.

During the three-day New Year's Day holiday, a total of 15 highways and some sections of three national highways in eight provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia were closed due to the heavy snow brought by the cold snap, according to the Ministry of Transport.

(Xinhua News Agency January 3, 2010)