Winter grip to ease; joint efforts hailed

Blizzards far less severe than those of a decade ago, forecaster says

The current freezing temperatures and icy conditions in central and eastern regions will continue until Saturday, but things will be less severe overall than the disastrous blizzard of early 2008, the national weather authority said on Monday.

Since Jan 23, blizzards with a mix of snow and rain have swept across 22 provinces in central, eastern and southern regions, bringing snow squalls and disrupting traffic, with the provinces of Hubei, Anhui, Hunan, Jiangsu and Jiangxi hit especially hard, the National Meteorological Center said.