Beijing suffocates yellow dust during the biggest sandstorm in nearly a decade

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Photos of Beijing, home to 21.7 million people, show skyscrapers and cars shrouded in thick fog, with air quality ratings of a “dangerous” rating, and authorities are advising residents to stay indoors.

Many commuters continued to fight the elements, however, walking and cycling through strong, sandy winds. Visibility was so poor in some areas of the city that drivers had to turn on their headlights even in the middle of the day.

“In some places, there are strong sandstorms with visibility of less than 500 meters,” the Chinese meteorological administration said in a statement on Monday. “This is also the strongest dust and sand weather affecting China in almost 10 years.”

Air quality in Beijing was already poor due to high levels of pollution. When the sandstorm struck, the city’s air quality dropped to dangerous levels, according to the World Air Quality Index.

A woman is pedaling on a street during a sandstorm in Beijing on March 15.

The index measures the concentration of various pollutants in the air – the most important being PM 2.5. This harmful microscopic particle has a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers and is considered particularly dangerous because it can take deep into the lungs and can pass into other organs and blood.

Beijing measured a maximum of 655 micrograms per cubic meter on Monday. The World Health Organization considers that anything over 25 is uncertain.

The sandstorm originated in Mongolia, where six people died and 81 are missing, according to the Chinese publication The Paper.

From Mongolia, the sandstorm gradually moved south. According to the city’s environmental monitoring center, concentrations of higher PM 10 particles exceed 8,100 micrograms per cubic meter, prompting the Central Meteorological Observatory to issue a yellow alert for sandstorms – the second level in a four-tier weather warning system.

Authorities have advised the public to avoid going outside if possible, and the Beijing Municipal Education Commission on Monday called on schools and education committees to suspend outdoor activities.

Buildings in Beijing's central business district during a March 15 sandstorm.
Sandstorms were common in the spring. In previous decades, at least two rounds of sandstorms have been recorded each May, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency. The frequency and severity of sandstorms were partly due to drought, increasing population pressure and poor progress in revegetation, which led to rapid desertification of land in the north and northwest.

But the sandstorms have dropped dramatically since then; the annual number of days affected by the Beijing sandstorm fell from a peak of 26 in the 1950s to just three days after 2010, Xinhua reported.

Since 2000, the Chinese government has invested billions of dollars to prevent sandstorms. Authorities have launched various reforestation and environmental projects and installed satellites to monitor sandstorms and alert weather agencies in a timely manner.

Sandstorms also hit northern Hebei and Shanxi provinces, western Gansu and central and western Inner Mongolia. Monday, Xinhua said. Other parts of the country, including northern Xinjiang, are experiencing high levels of wind gusts. Sandstorms are expected to last until Tuesday.

Mongolia, which is north of mainland China, is facing strong cyclones, the meteorological administration said. Mongolia’s sand and dust moved east and south over northern China, driven by cold high pressure behind the cyclone.

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