Shenzhen had its first rainfall for the year Thursday brought by a winter monsoon that had caused patchy rain over South China during the past two days.

The total rainfall Thursday was about 1.8 mm, the highest recorded since last September, said a meteorological observatory spokeswoman.

Although the rain would not break the drought, it would improve the humidity, she said.

"The city will continue to be cold until the weekend, but the sky may begin to turn sunny Friday afternoon," the spokeswoman said.

The city's meteorological observatory issued a yellow cold weather alert Thursday warning that the temperature could drop to 6 degrees Celsius in early mornings and late evenings over the weekend.

"This is still not too bad if compared with the minimum temperature, which fell to 3.4 degrees Celsius on Jan. 1," she said.

Over the weekend, the weather will remain cold and sunny with temperatures ranging between 8 and 13 degrees. Relative humidity will range from about 50 to 85 percent.

The city's construction bureau also issued a warning Thursday, reminding people not to use water heaters which discharge carbon monoxide directly into their bathrooms.

People were advised to keep bathrooms ventilated when taking a shower in the cold weather to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning.

Several fatalities were reported in the city in the first week of the year because of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Editor: Catherine