City temperatures plummet to minus 7 degrees

Thursday was the coldest day, year on year, in Shanghai in 20 years with temperatures reaching minus 5.9 degrees Celsius.

Some suburban districts, including Jiading, Jinshan and Chongming, recorded minus 7 degrees, the city’s weather bureau said.

An orange alert for cold and a yellow alert for ice on the roads were released by the bureau at 5pm, but temperatures should start to rise from New Year's Day.

The maximum temperature is expected to gradually increase from 5 degrees on Friday to 12 degrees on Monday.

Skies will be clearly during the three-day New Year holiday starting from Friday but rain is forecast next week, the bureau said.

With the cold front leaving the city, air pollution will be back on the first two days of the new year. 

The city will be lightly and moderately polluted on Friday and Saturday due to a high concentration of PM2.5 blown in from the north, the ecology and environment bureau said. But air quality will be good on Sunday.