The season's most wide-ranging snowfall swept across North China on Friday with heavy winds and lower temperatures affecting large parts of the country, including Beijing.

The snow and sleet started on Thursday night in Qinghai and Gansu provinces in Northwest China, and are set to move eastward through wider swathes of North China, pushing the mercury down by 4 to 8 C, the National Meteorological Center said on Friday.

As much as eight millimeters of snow is likely to fall in some areas, including the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, and the provinces of Heilongjiang, Shanxi and Shaanxi, it said.

Beijing recorded its first snowflake at 2:50 pm on Friday in its northwestern Yanqing district, according to the city's weather bureau.