Hello and welcome to this edition of CRI Roundup brought to you by China Radio International. I am Damin in Beijing.

In the past week, severe winter weather has hit many countries and regions in the northern hemisphere including China, South Korea, the Untied States and Europe, bringing inconveniences to people's daily lives.

Details to follow—don't go away.

Starting from last Saturday, a record heavy snowfall struck many cities in North China.

The capital city of Beijing saw its heaviest snow in nearly six decades with the temperature reaching a low of minus 16 degrees.

Municipal authorities deployed workers to clear away snow on the streets to maintain smooth transportation.

Tian Xiangdong, a trash collector in Beijing's Haidian District, says more than 500 of his colleagues have worked around-the-clock sweeping roads.

"570 trash collectors—that's almost all of my colleagues—swept snow off the street from yesterday morning until early this morning. After a break of two hours, all of us again got to work at about 6 this morning. We want to create smooth traffic conditions with the help of snow sweepers."

Local governments across China have also taken immediate and effective measures to ensure energy and food supplies during the extremely low temperatures and heavy snowfall.

The State Grid Corporation says central and eastern China have reported power crunches in some cities such as Nanjing and Nanchang.

More than 400 enterprises and manufacturers in the city of Wuhan are taking turns stopping production to ensure uninterrupted electricity and heating supplies for residential homes.

This is the first time in the past 10 years the city has adopted such measures.

The cold weather has also triggered vegetable price hikes in Beijing.

Zhang Quan is a retailer at Xinfadi agricultural products market, the capital's largest trading center for agricultural products.

"Cabbage sold at 1.3 yuan a kilogram before the snowfall, but it now sells at almost two yuan per kilogram. The average prices of vegetables went up by about 50 percent in this market because of the snowfall."

Despite the temporary price hikes, local officials have promised to ensure an adequate supply of vegetables in the markets.

Authorities in Beijing have begun to make full use of government vegetable reserves to fill possible supply gaps.

China's neighbor, South Korea, has also seen its heaviest snowfall of 28 centimeters since the country began conducting meteorological surveys in 1937.

Gimpo International Airport in western Seoul cancelled more than 200 flights on Monday morning before resuming service in the afternoon when the snowfall eased.

"I did worry when I came out. However, I asked the airport before I came out whether planes would depart. They said it was operating normally, so I wasn't too worried."

"I know since I've been walking on the streets yesterday, there was just too much snow to say that the snow removal operation started too late."

In Europe, winter weather continues to wreck havoc on people's lives as a cold snap affecting many parts of the continent showed no sign of abating.

The foul weather hit airports, trains and road networks across Europe, creating slippery road conditions and disrupting some rail services and air traffic.

Many Europeans found themselves dealing with unusually extreme weather conditions:

"I've lived here 30 years, and it's probably been one of the worst periods I've ever known."

"The situation is very bad. A large part of the village is underwater. Even for us to get to the place where we've been stationed, we have to cross icy water...sometimes 50 centimeters deep."

With the worst-hit areas seeing up to 40 centimeters of snow, local officials and road crews are struggling to keep up.

Several local governments are running out of sand and salt—with some reportedly emptying their reserve supplies.

The unusually cold weather is expected to continue for the next two weeks.

Meanwhile, snow and freezing temperatures continued to grip the central and eastern parts of the United States as far south as Florida.

In central and southern Florida, farmers have been trying to salvage citrus and vegetable crops by spraying them with protective layers of ice and covering them in plastic.

"It damages the fruit. It can damage the plant, but it will come back on. But you just miss that whole crop right there. You know, you'll be out for three, four weeks."

"We did hit some low temperatures, but from all reports at this point, it wasn't for a sustained period of time, and that's a good thing."

And with that, we conclude this edition of CRI Roundup. If you have any comments or suggestions, or would like to listen to any of our programs, you can visit our website at Crienglish.com.

I'm Damin in Beijing. Thank you for listening, and stay tuned for more on China Radio International.