Lack of snow threatens China's largest prairie

Herders in north China's Hulun Buir cheered when snowflakes fell Sunday morning, but their jubilation was short lived as the snow stopped almost as quickly as it had begun, bringing little relief to the parched grasslands of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Although reporting temperatures as low as minus 20 degrees celsius, the sparsely-populated Hulun Buir prairie has only seen sporadic snow across its 250,000 square kilometers of grassland this year.

More than 90 percent of the prairie has not been covered by snow, which is very unusual by this time of the year, according to head of the local meteorological center Jiang Fengyou.

He said that El Nino had affected the region's weather pattern, and there had not been sufficient cold air to form snow.

As shepherd Baolide Baatar's 500 sheep compete for water they are partially hidden by dust whipped up from the dry soil.

"We are lucky that we have a well, I dread to think what it would be like otherwise," he said.

Baatar has never seen so little snow in his life. The older members of his community are concerned that the lack of snow may result in what they call "black disaster," where whole herds die en masse due to lack of water.

Locals are concerned that their animals may lose weight if they only drink water from the well, which may affect their ability to reproduce, Temuqiletu, a local official, said. However, he added, as most herders have access to wells or water wagons black disaster was unlikely to occur.

The drought may be relieved by snow forecast for early December, Jiang said. Endi