On the 11th day of the 2024 Spring Festival, the blue warning for blitz and the yellow warning for freezing will continue to be issued. Since 2009, the heaviest winter rain, snow and freezing weather is affecting most parts of China, and the precipitation in some areas of 11 provinces and cities is extreme. Many people who have returned home during the Spring Festival have encountered problems such as snow and ice on the roads. The "busiest" Spring Festival has encountered the strongest rain, snow and freezing weather in winter since 2009, which has brought great pressure to this year's Spring Festival.
Worries on the way to the car.
From January 31 to February 5, the central and eastern regions of China ushered in the longest rain and snow process since this winter. According to China Weather, the rain, snow and freezing weather process has the characteristics of wide range of influence, large cumulative amount of rain and snow, long duration, and large area of freezing rain, and is generally the strongest winter since 2009, with extremity.
Under such weather, it was originally only a 20-hour drive back home, but Han Lei's car drove for four days and three nights and did not reach home. At 8 p.m. on February 2, Han Lei set off from Guangdong to Shaanxi by self-driving, the road was covered with heavy snow, and it was difficult for the car to move forward. "On February 3 and 4, I was blocked in Hubei for two days, and in the middle of the night on the 4th, I saw the police and rescue team coming. Han Lei told a reporter from Beijing Business Daily, "After more than an hour of uninterrupted operation of the snow shovel, the highway covered by snow was gradually opened, and we were able to continue to move forward." ”
Similar to Han Lei's experience, Zhang Cheng was also stuck in a highway jam in Hubei for hours due to a blizzard. At about one o'clock in the morning on February 4, Zhang Cheng was asked to get off the highway. "After getting off the expressway, I planned to take the Qianjiang Expressway, but I was told by the traffic police that the expressway was temporarily closed, and finally I chose to drive the car to the railway station, ready to buy a high-speed rail ticket to go home, but the train is also temporarily suspended. Zhang Cheng told a reporter from Beijing Business Daily.
During this Spring Festival travel period, Han Lei and Zhang Chengjun are among the thousands of travelers who return to their hometowns by car. According to data previously released by the Ministry of Transport, according to **, the 40-day Spring Festival from January 26 to March 5 will have 9 billion people traveling, visiting relatives, leisure, etc., which may hit a record high. Among them, the number of passenger trips in traditional commercial transportation, including railways, highways, civil aviation, and water transport, is expected to be about 1.8 billion, and the remaining 80% will be self-driving trips, so self-driving trips will hit a record high.
Local blizzards continue.
The number of trips is likely to hit a new high, but the bad weather continues. **The Meteorological Observatory will continue to issue a blue warning for blizzard at 10 o'clock on February 5: It is expected that from February 5 to 7, there will be heavy to heavy snowfall in parts of southeastern Chongqing, northern Guizhou, southern Hubei, southern Anhui, northern Hunan, northern Jiangxi, northwest Zhejiang and other places, with a cumulative snowfall of 5-18 mm in some of the above areas, more than 20 mm locally, and a new snow depth of 5-10 cm, and more than 15 cm locally.
At the same time, the yellow warning for freezing continues to be issued: it is expected that from 14 o'clock on February 5 to 14 o'clock on the 6th, there will be freezing rain in parts of central and eastern Guizhou, southeast Chongqing, most of Hunan, southeastern Hubei, northwest Jiangxi, southern mountainous areas of Anhui, and southwestern mountainous areas of Zhejiang, with a cumulative freezing rainfall of 1-6 mm and about 10 mm locally.
In order to ensure that the road for the masses to return to their hometowns can be safe and smooth, at present, all parties have begun to "respond to emergencies".
In terms of self-driving, in Hubei, which has attracted much attention, as of February 4, the Hubei Suizhou section of the Fuyin Expressway, the Hubei Xianning section of the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao Expressway, and the Hubei Yichang section of the Shanghai-Chongqing Expressway have all been shoveled and snow removed, led by the Hubei Expressway police.
In terms of railways, on February 5, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily learned from China National Railway Group (hereinafter referred to as "China Railway Group") that local railway departments pay close attention to the travel needs of Spring Festival passengers, and on the premise of ensuring transportation safety, increase capacity in areas and routes where the weather is improving to meet the travel needs of passengers to the greatest extent.
According to the relevant person in charge of the China Railway Group, Harbin Bureau Group Co., Ltd. has opened 120 passenger trains in Beijing, Tianjin, Linyi, Heze, Dalian, Shenyang, Changchun, Tongliao and Qiqihar, Jiamusi, Mudanjiang and other popular directions in the province, including 4 passenger trains in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hangzhou for the first time. Xi'an Bureau Group Co., Ltd. plans to open 83 additional passenger trains in popular directions such as Chengdu, Chongqing, Shanghai and Hangzhou, including 16 night high-speed trains. Guangzhou Bureau Group Co., Ltd. plans to open 346 additional passenger trains in popular directions such as Chengdu and Nanning, including 234 EMU trains. In addition, the major stations of Wuhan and Beijing Bureau Group have dynamically increased the refund and change windows to facilitate passengers to handle refunds, changes and other services offline.
There is still work to be done.
Regarding the impact of large-scale rain and snow freezing on the Spring Festival, China Weather Network previously issued an article saying that the impact period of this round of rain, snow and freezing weather overlaps with the peak travel before the Spring Festival, and the serious areas affected are mostly in the central and eastern transportation hub provinces, which will have a significant adverse impact on the Spring Festival.
In terms of travelers, China Weather Network reminds that it is currently the peak period of returning home during the Spring Festival, and it is recommended that returnees should avoid the strongest period of rain and snow, avoid places with heavy freezing rain, pay attention to the weather and road traffic information along the way, reasonably arrange travel time and routes, and pay attention to safety.
In terms of relevant departments, Liu Yanxiang, chief of the meteorological service of the Public Meteorological Service Center of the China Meteorological Administration, also publicly reminded that foggy, rainy and snowy weather is easy to lead to low visibility, and road snow and ice cause the road surface to be wet, which will have a certain impact on road driving and aircraft take-off and landing, which may lead to flight delays. In terms of railways, it is necessary to focus on preventing the potential risks brought by freezing rain to communication systems and rails. In addition, there will be thunderstorms in the south during this process, and relevant departments should also do a good job of lightning protection.
In addition, what else can be done to deal with such rain, snow and freezing weather? Xie Xiaowen, an expert member of the New Technology Promotion Branch of the China Communications and Transportation Association, told Beijing Business Daily that with the intensification of global climate change, extreme weather events occur frequently, especially rain, snow and freezing disasters. Such disasters not only pose a threat to human life and safety, but also pose great challenges to social and economic development.
From the perspective of technology promotion and a more long-term perspective, in addition to the response measures taken by relevant departments, on the one hand, it can accelerate the development of low-altitude economy, improve the capacity of emergency transportation, rescue, monitoring, service, etc., especially improve the traffic situation between cities and regions, and improve the quality of life of the people. On the other hand, it is also necessary to speed up the research and development of nuclear fusion energy high-speed rail EMUs, solve problems from a higher strategic construction, and make China's new quality productivity reach the top of the world. Xie Xiaowen said.
Beijing Business Daily reporter Jin Chaoli, Ran Lili, text, Visual China.