Weather officials are warning travellers to be careful about bad weather during the week-long May Day holidays.

Wang Bangzhong, deputy director of the Forecasting Services and Disaster Mitigation Department of the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), said yesterday that in the next two days, the beginning of the seven-day May Day holidays, rain, including heavy downpours, may occur in the south with hails and lightning probably hitting some areas.

Rainy days will be expected in areas in the south from Thursday to Saturday.

In most parts of northern China, people can enjoy three warm days as the temperature will stay from 20 C to 25 C.

However, the weather is likely to change in the latter part of the week-long holidays as cold air is set to hit the north with strong winds.

Following winds with a force of 4 to 7, drifting dust or even sandstorms are likely to sweep parts of northern and northwestern China, particularly the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Gansu Province.

April saw seven sandstorms across the northern part of China. The visibility in some areas fell below 500 metres, including Beijing where an estimated 330,000 tons of sand fell during the worst sandstorm last month.

So far this year, 13 sandstorms have been recorded in northern China. The number is higher than the same period over the past three years, statistics from CMA show.

Over the past month, at least 8 people died in sandstorm-related accidents and illnesses, and there was widespread damage.

A new front of wet weather is expected to dominate most of the country from the south to north around May 7 or the end of the May Day holidays. This will hopefully bring moisture to ease up a drought that has, since the start of spring, plagued many provinces, especially the northern areas.

At least 2.3 million people have difficulty accessing drinking water because of the drought that has affected more than 4.9 million hectares of farmland in Hebei in North China, Gansu and Ningxia in Northwest China, Shandong in East China, and Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou in Southwest China, a source with CMA said.

(China Daily 05/01/2006 page2)