The worst winter weather in decades brought brutal temperatures and deadly snowstorms to swathes of Central Asia and China in early 2008, knocking out power supplies, crippling transport and destroying crops.

Freak cold and snow across the southern half of China killed more than 100 people, affected some 100 million others and caused $15.4 billion of direct economic losses.

Blizzards brought down houses, destroyed crops and created the country's worst ever power crisis as storms toppled pylons and ice on rail tracks halted coal deliveries.

Thick ice and hail even hit parts China's subtropical south, while two central provinces recorded their coldest weather in 100 years.

In Afghanistan, icy temperatures killed several hundred people and about 40,000 cattle. Aid groups say the cold weather affected more than two-thirds of provinces in and rendered parts of the central region inaccessible in January.

Neighbouring Turkmenistan, seeking to emerge from decades of isolation, sent an aid package comprising fuel, food and clothes to northern Afghanistan.

As spring promised to bring welcome relief from the cold, millions of Afghans faced the risk of seasonal floods brought on by melting snows.

Tajikistan, paralysed by its coldest winter in a quarter-century, asked for emergency international aid to help it survive an energy crisis that has left millions of people without power and heating.

U.N. experts say the harsh winter underscores the need for governments to build infrastructure that can withstand previously unthinkable weather.

"So-called freak weather is becoming more common, and reducing vulnerability to unexpected extremes must be a top priority for governments," says Salvador Briceno, head of the U.N's disaster relief agency, ISDR.

China's Meteorological Administration says the snow and cold probably developed out of a La Nina - or low sea-surface temperatures - in parts of the Pacific in the second half of last year combined with unusual weather from the west.