BEIJING - A cold front will bring moderate rain to North China after heavy rainfall swept the country's southern regions, China's meteorological authority said on Sunday.

Light to moderate rain will hit Inner Mongolia and parts of China's northwestern provinces from Monday with temperatures expected to drop by 4 to 6 degrees Celsius, according to a statement posted on the website of the National Meteorological Center(NMC).

The cold front has caused rainfall to parts of Xinjiang, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Shandong and many parts of southern China on Saturday. Provinces of Hunan, Guizhou and other parts of South China will continue to see heavy rains on Sunday and Monday, said the NMC.

The NMC also warned of foggy weather in regions along the Yellow, Huaihe and Yangtze rivers on Sunday, especially for parts of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Henan and Shanxi.

In a separate statement, the center said that Jelawat, the 17th tropical storm of the year, has strengthened to typhoon as of 8:00 am Sunday, when it was located at 910 kilometers southeast of Manila, the Philippine capital.

Jelawat is expected to further strengthen and move northwestward at a speed of 5 to 10 kilometers per hour, and will have no effect on China's offshore waters over the next two days, said the statement.