Parts of eastern and southern China, including Jiangsu, Anhui and Hunan provinces, are digging out from under a 22-centimeter snowfall Monday, that caused huge traffic problems.

As of 3 pm Tuesday, 309,000 residents in five cities in Anhui had been affected by the snow, according to statistics from local authorities. Ninety houses were toppled and 114 others were damaged as a result of the snow, causing direct economic losses of 84 million yuan ($13.38 million).

Most highways in Anhui were closed and long distance bus travel was canceled. According to railway authorities in the provincial capital Hefei, at least 33 trains were canceled.

The Jiangsu provincial airline authority announced it shut down airports in Nanjing and Yangzhou from 10 pm on Monday. Nanjing Lukou International Airport remained closed almost 12 hours, reopening Tuesday morning after several flights were canceled or delayed. The province also cut the speed limit on most highways to 40 kilometers per hour. Several high-speed railways including Shanghai-Nanjing and Hefei-Nanning also operated at much reduced speeds. Many cities in Jiangsu also postponed the beginning of the school day.

The National Meteorological Center of China Meteorological Administration said most parts of the country will see warmer temperatures starting Wednesday.

Light snowfalls will continue to linger in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and more rain is expected in most other southern areas. 

Hefei's metrological authority predicts a sunny day on Friday.

The extreme weather brought back memories of the terrible storms four years ago that killed more than 100 people "The weather is not nearly as dangerous as what we experienced in 2008. All factors such as the duration, temperature and snow fall are much less severe," Wang Sheng, a staffer from Hefei climate center, told the Hefei Evening News.

A snow disaster in 2008, the worst in half a century, snarled the country's central, southern and eastern regions.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, 107 people were killed, eight others went missing and 1.5 million people had to be relocated. The direct economic loss was estimated at 111.1 billion yuan.