SHANGHAI – Beijing woke up this Sunday covered in brown skies again after the second sandstorm from the north in less than two weeks.
Just 13 days after the worst sandstorm in a decade in the Chinese capital – which left several dead and missing in Mongolia – air quality index meters again exceeded their maximum limits in Beijing in the early hours of this day.
The concentration of PM10 particles (for example, dust or ash) in the air was close to 10,000 micrograms per cubic meter in the city center, according to the official press.
The Beijing meteorological authorities issued a yellow alert this Saturday – the third highest – for the sandstorm, which is expected to last about 12 hours.
According to recently consulted experts, one of the factors that could cause an increase in this type of atmospheric phenomenon is global warming, which would make it easier for strong winds to carry large amounts of sand and dust from bare and dry soils.
The Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post recalls that Beijing had only recorded one sandstorm in 2020.
The official Xinhua news agency said that the northern regions of Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Tianjin, Liaoning and Jilin have also been affected by the storms.
– .
