storm
Sandstorm in China: More than 400 million affected
Sandstorm in Beijing. photo
© —/Kyodo/dpa
The sandstorm came from southern Mongolia. Air pollution increased rapidly in Beijing. Visibility was at times only a few dozen meters.
A heavy sandstorm has swept across the Chinese capital Beijing and other regions in northern China. Around 409 million people were affected, the Ministry of Forestry reported, according to information from the newspaper “Global Times”. Beijing’s air pollution index rose well above the scale limit to 1,300 on Monday evening, while levels of 150 are already considered “unhealthy”. Visibility dropped to a few tens of meters.
The sandstorm came from southern Mongolia and, in addition to the 23-million metropolis, also hit other northern regions such as Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang and Xinjiang, the ministry reported. An area of 2.29 million square kilometers was affected – 16 times the size of Germany. The weather center reported that northern China has already experienced more sandstorms this year than the average for the past decade.
With extremely high concentrations of PM10, the air index in Beijing was still around 900 on Tuesday morning, while a dust bell hung over the capital. Only during the course of the day did it slowly clear up again with stronger winds.