Long queues over the weekend to pick up winter school uniforms

People were seen queuing across the city next to stores selling school uniforms over the weekend.
These long queues are due to the need for winter uniforms ahead of classes’ resumption today.
Standing in the long queues for long periods, even hours, many were dissatisfied, and blamed the last-minute school resumption announcements made by the government. This was followed by a notice from the schools asking students to be at school wearing the winter uniform.
A mother of two explained briefly to the Times that the announcement from the government on the immediate resumption of schools came on Thursday evening, while most schools only notified parents on the change to the winter uniform on Friday.
“Since most of the stores [that sell school uniforms] are closed on Sunday, we all had to come today [Saturday] to buy them,” she said.
Waiting in the same line next to the door of a well known uniform store in the surroundings of Lou Lim Ioc Garden, a domestic helper named Annie told the Times that usually the change for the winter uniform takes place later in the year.
“From my experience of working in Macau for many years, I know that uniform change is in December but this year they asked [for it] early and people have little time [to adjust to the school’s decision],” she said.
This reason for the sudden decision by the schools is due to the sudden change in Macau’s weather that occurred late last week. Since Thursday evening and through the weekend, there has been a sudden drop in temperature from around 30 degrees Celsius to around 20 degrees Celsius.
According to a report from Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post (SCMP) last week, the change of weather affecting both Hong Kong and Macau is due to a cold front forming over central China that moved south over the weekend, bringing with it cooler temperatures below 20 degrees Celsius for the first time this autumn, the Hong Kong Observatory said.
In the same report, and quoting a weather expert, the SCMP said “people would not need to dig out winter coats just yet,” noting that temperatures will likely rise from mid this week to an average of 25 to26 degrees Celsius or higher.
A similar forecast can be seen at the local Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau which predicts a maximum temperature of 27 degrees Celsius tomorrow and 28 degree Celsius for the following days until Friday.