Weather of Guangzhou China

The incident occurred Monday night at a station in Guangzhou during a time when millions of migrant workers travel home to visit their families during Chinese New Year celebrations, the report added. Some 4, 000 police officers were deployed to restore order at the train station due to the mass stranding, the French Press Agency (AFP) reported.

"The pattern leading to China's disruptive snow is similar to that sometimes occurring with southern snow and ice events in the U.S., " said weather.com meteorologist Jonathan Erdman. "Namely, cold air was locked in place over eastern Asia, penetrating deep into China. Then, a pair of upper-air disturbances riding an active southern-branch jet stream lead to a pair of snow events this past weekend, then again Monday."

Although some rail service was restored, about 50, 000 travelers were still stuck at the rail station on Tuesday, the BBC also said. This cold snap came at the worst possible time for the country, with so many residents traveling for the holiday.

"The government estimated that 2.91 billion trips will be taken over the holiday's 40-day travel season, in what is thought to be the largest yearly movement of people in the world, " AFP also said.

"A west-east strip from near the northern border of Myanmar to just southwest of Shanghai likely picked up anywhere from 1 to 12.5 cm (less than half an inch to nearly 5 inches), " Erdman added. "A few areas within that swath well north of Guangzhou may have picked up over 25 cm (roughly 10 inches) of snow since the weekend."