Many parts in southern China embraced the first snowfall this winter on Friday, including the provinces of Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Hunan and Hubei provinces in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

Xie Tianci, who works in Shanghai, said it had been raining for days in the city before the temperature dropped to around freezing, and the situation was worse with winds.

"The season changed from autumn to winter overnight," Xie said. "I'm from Northwest China's Shaanxi province, and the temperatures in the humid south, though still above zero, are unbearable," he said.

The national meteorological authority forecast that the cold front will continue to push down the mercury in the next few days, and Hainan, China's southernmost province, is expected to see heavy rains over the weekend.

The observatory has urged the public to make necessary precautions against the upcoming weather changes. It also renewed a blue alert for the cold wave, the lowest warning on the country's four-tier weather warning ranking system.