Beijing's first snow since last winter continued on Wednesday morning, but traffic coped well.

The Beijing Meteorological Bureau said that the Fenghuangling Mountain to the northwest of the city received the biggest precipitation of 6mm from 8:00 AM on Tuesday to 8:00 AM on Wednesday. While, the average precipitation from the snowfall in the downtown area was 1mm.

The bureau forecast that the same amount of snowfall will continue in the daytime on Wednesday, and it is likely to turn larger at night.

Three sections of highways leading to northeastern suburbs of the city were closed on Wednesday. But traffic on major highways in downtown Beijing, including the airport expressway, remained smooth, according to the city's transport bureau.

More than 6,000 policemen were on the roads to monitor traffic on Wednesday, as transport authorities launched a third degree alarm to cope with the traffic in snowy weather.

Zhang Qiang, deputy director of the Beijing Weather Modification Command Center, said the center had used artificial means since Tuesday to increase the snow in order to ease the drought.

Meteorological bureau chief Guo Hu said the snow on Wednesday coincided with "Rain Water", one of the 24 solar terms on the ancient Chinese luni-solar calendar, when it usually rains.

He said Beijing's first snow normally fell in mid-December. However, the capital had been enduring the longest drought in 38 years, according to the bureau's records. The city had not seen rain or snow since October 24.

(Xinhua News Agency February 18, 2009)