Beijing struck by second sandstorm in two weeks
Shanghai, China, Mar 28 (efe-epa).- Beijing residents woke up on Sunday to brown skies again after a second sandstorm from the north hit the capital 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, the city’s air quality index meters once again exceeded the maximum limits early Sunday.
The concentration of PM10 particles (such as dust and ash) in the air was close to 10,000 micrograms per cubic meter in the city’s center, according to state media reports.
On Saturday, the Beijing Meteorological Service issued a yellow alert – the third highest – for the sandstorm, which is expected to last about 12 hours.
Experts recently consulted by Efe say that one of the factors contributing to an increase in such phenomena is global warming, which makes it easier for strong winds to lift large amounts of sand and dust from bare and dry soils into the atmosphere.
The northern regions of Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Tianjin, Liaoning and Jilin were also struck by storms on Saturday, according to official news agency Xinhua. EFE-EPA
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