Cold, dry winds filled the skies with Siberian dust and sand
Tuesday in northwest, north and northeast China.
Visibility was cut to less than 500 meters in a few areas,
meteorologists said.
"It was the seventh event of its kind so far this year and the
strongest one recorded this spring," He Lifu, a weatherman for the
Central Meteorological Observation Station, told China
Daily.
Transportation, particularly airplane takeoffs and landings as
well as traffic on expressways, might be affected during a strong
sandstorm, He warned.
Around 3:00 PM Tuesday, drifting and flowing sand was observed
in central western portions of Gansu and Inner Mongolia, southern
parts of Hebei
and western Liaoning.
Forecasts called for flowing or drifting sand to sweep more
areas in Gansu,
Shaanxi,
Shanxi
and Hebei provinces as well as Beijing and Ningxia
Hui Autonomous Region today, with the cold wind likely to blow
eastward, said He.
Strong sandstorms, the highest degree of sand-related weather
events, are expected for the central western areas of Gansu and
parts of Ningxia provinces today, with wind speeds reaching 13 to
16 meters per second.
Temperatures were forecast to drop 6 to 10 degrees C in parts of
north and northeast China, accompanied by gusty winds.
"Such temperature fluctuations are quite normal in spring," said
He.
(China Daily March 10, 2004)