Alert continues for severe smog in north China

Motorcars run amid smog in Shijiazhuang, capital of north China's Hebei province, Oct 9, 2014. Hebei issued an orange alert for smog on Thursday.(Xinhua/Zhu Xudong)

The National Meteorological Center (NMC) will extend a yellow alert on Thursday for severe smog and air pollution shrouding China's northern regions on Wednesday.

Widespread smog has affected a large part of north China as well as northwest China's Shaanxi Province since Wednesday, with air conditions in northern Chinese cities including Beijing and Tianjin severely downgraded.

Visibility in Beijing and Tianjin as well as the neighboring Hebei Province was reduced to less than 1 km on Thursday morning due to smog, according to the NMC.

The agency also forecast the central and eastern part of Beijing city and the west part of Hebei Province will be challenged with extremely heavy smog in the coming hours till Friday morning.

However, it said that a strong cold front which now affects Xinjiang in northwest China will further march eastward over the next three days, which is likely to disperse the smog in the north.

China has a four-tier color-coded weather warning system, with red representing the most severe warning, followed by orange, yellow and blue.