For football enthusiast Wang Zheng, this winter's warmth has been a blessing.

"In past winters we often had to play football on snow-covered ground, or virtually stopped practicing when the freezing air bit too hard," said Wang, a state-owned enterprise employee in Beijing. "Thank goodness there were merely two very small snowfalls this year, and we played at least twice a week since the air was extraordinarily warm."

Beijing's temperature this winter has averaged 2 degrees C higher than the average of the past years, making it the third warmest winter since the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949.

Nationwide, China is experiencing its 18th warm winter in a row.

Meteorologists report that most parts of the country have had higher temperatures than the same period in past years. Northwest and north China, the Yangtze and Yellow River areas, and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau all reported average temperatures 1 - 3 degrees C higher than normal.

In some cities in Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang Province, average temperatures this winter have run 3 degrees higher than in past years.

Only southern Fujian, eastern Guangdong and the northern part of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region have been colder than usual this winter.

In comparison with the average temperatures of the winters from 1961 to 1990, this year's average indicates the 18th consecutive warm winter, said Zhang Qiang of the National Climate Center.

However, if compared with a new standard, which includes the averages of 1971 to 2000, this is the eighth warm winter in a row, he explained.

In Beijing, meteorologists have described this winter, usually counted from December to February, as exceptionally warm and a bit short of precipitation.

The average temperature last December was 1.8 degrees C higher than preceding years.

Although there were days in January when the temperatures were 0.5 degree lower than the same period of past years, the average for the month still went 1.3 degrees higher.

The mercury soared in February, with the temperatures from February 21 to 27 equaling the averages of mid-March in past years. Ice in the city's lakes and rivers melted three days earlier than usual.

Meteorologists said the warmer weather is likely a result of global warming.

The warm winter reduced power consumption for heating and is nice for the transportation and construction sectors, experts said.

But higher temperatures dry up the earth and improve the survival rates of pests, increasing the threat of epidemic outbreaks.

For amateur football players, however, the trouble was that continuing dry weather left the grassless pitch extremely vulnerable to the least breath of wind. Players found that a small scuffle or a gust of air would make the field a whirlwind of dust and dirt, said Wang Zheng.

(China Daily March 1, 2004)