Cold snap takes its toll, expected to draw to a close

The weather yesterday was not as severe as initially expected, with added warmth from the sunshine ensuring that temperatures settled between 3 and 10 degrees Celsius, as opposed to the 1 to 7 degrees previously forecasted by the Macau Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG).
At 6 p.m. last night, recorded temperatures across the SMG’s various weather stations ranged between 7.1 and 9.5 degrees, according to the bureau’s website.
Despite the sunnier-than-expected weather, the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau notified residents last night of the closure of primary, kindergarten and special education schools in anticipation of the cold weather. Representatives from the bureau now say that schools will re-open today.
Meanwhile, the cold weather took its toll yesterday with six cases of hypothermia reported in Macau.
According to the Health Bureau, yesterday morning a woman suffering from chronic illness was transferred from a senior citizens’ home to the Central Hospital diagnosed with hypothermia. Doctors attempted to resuscitate her but were unsuccessful, culminating in her death.
Between 4 p.m. on Sunday and 4 p.m. yesterday, a total of five further cases of hypothermia were reported at the Conde de São Januário Central Hospital and the Kiang Wu Hospital. All of the victims are male between the ages of 20 and 75 years of age. One of the five men has been described as being in a serious condition.
Forecasts suggest that temperatures will continue to rise marginally in the next few days, reaching historical averages toward the end of the week.
Olavo Rasquinho, a weather expert and former Secretary of the U.N. Typhoon Committee based in Macau, told the Times that the cold snap “is due to the winter monsoon that is affecting the south of China and the northern part of the South China Sea.”
“It is a characteristic situation [for] winter, but the temperatures are somehow lower than normal,” Rasquinho said, before adding, “We cannot relate this intense cold surge with any climatological event, such as the strong El Nino,” which has been affecting the area since May.
According to Rasquinho, who also served as the director of the SMG from 1996 until 1998 during the Portuguese administration, the lowest temperature recorded in Macau was –1.8 degrees Celsius on January 26, 1948, exactly 68 years ago.  Staff reporter

Taiwan’s elderly feel brunt of bitter cold

Fifty-seven people have died in Taiwan’s greater Taipei area due to the unusually cold weather that has plagued many parts of the world in recent days.
Temperatures in the island’s capital city plunged to a 16-year low of 4 degrees Celsius at one point, causing difficulties for senior residents of Taiwan.
A city spokesperson, who identified himself only as Chang, told Associated Press that the lack of central heating in private homes, compounded by the bitterly cold weather, had caused heart-related difficulties and shortness of breath for some elderly residents, and strokes and hypothermia for others.
“In our experience, it’s not the actual temperature but the sudden drop that’s too sudden for people’s circulatory systems,” Chang said.
The cold front also covered Taipei’s highest peak in nine centimeters of snow, and left vehicles stranded as residents ascended the mountain to see the rare weather phenomenon.
The same polar front resulted in the closure of schools yesterday in Hong Kong, where 130 people had been trapped a day earlier on a peak in the city, which rarely experiences such cold weather. Hong Kong temperatures reached 3.1 degrees on Sunday. MDT/Agencies