La Nina in Guangzhou.

I started hearing about the snow storm in China a couple of days ago because people were asking if I knew what was going on. I assumed it was in the North since that would make more sense but today I finally decided to search for it. It has also been usually cold and overcast here in Cambodia.

Much to my surprise and heartbreak, the regions hit hardest by the snow are in the South, including Guangzhou, where my family is.

The savage winter snows and freezing temperatures that have brought much of the nation to a standstill have transformed transport hubs into seething masses of frustrated humanity.

In the southern city of Guangzhou, 2,000 riot and army police fought to hold back crowds of hundreds of thousands of mainly migrant workers surging forward at the merest hint of an opening to a train platform.

For many, Lunar New Year - which falls on February 7 this year - is the only chance to escape to their families from their toil in the factories of southern China. (From this article.)

Apparently it is the worst weather they have had in 50 years. La Nina is supposed to be the climatic opposite of El Nino. Rather than causing warming to the Pacific, it is a pool of cold water that affects the equatorial Pacific. Damn.

More than ever, cold weather and all, I wish I was spending Chinese New Year in China this week.