Duststorms blanket Beijing

Om March 22, 2023, a severe duststorm has swept across Beijing and several northern provinces in China, blanketing the region in thick clouds of orange dust and sending air pollution soaring to hazardous levels, state weather authorities reported. The dust even turned the sun blue, a phenomenon called 'Mie scattering'.

The current duststorm originated from Mongolia and gradually moved towards central and eastern China, according to Chinese weather forecasters. A lack of rainfall and low pressure winds also meant small dust particles have also drifted into the country.

Dense clouds enveloped the Chinese capital where the air quality index of PM10 – particles of pollution that are less than 10 micrometers in diameter and can enter through the nose and travel to the lungs – have exceeded monitoring charts.

Concentrations of PM10 particles hit 1,667 micrograms per cubic meter by 06:00 hours local time, according to Beijing’s monitoring center, with the agency calling it “the most severe sandstorm to date this year.”

That figure is more than 37 times the daily average guideline of 45 micrograms per cubic meter set by the World Health Organization.

Beijing is regularly hit with duststorms in the spring with the smog made worse by rising industrial activities and rapid deforestation throughout northern China.

Nearly a dozen provinces issued 'yellow' warning signals, including Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Shandong, Henan, Jiangsu, Anhui and Hubei, according to China’s Meteorological Administration.

China uses a four-tier weather warning system, with 'red' representing the most severe warning, followed by 'orange', 'yellow' and 'blue'.

Which means that everybody is cheating. Which, of course, is nothing new in a communist country where every official may be held accountable if 'the party' disagrees. If a duststorm that exceeds every guideline is 'just' yellow, one wonders how severe a duststorm must be to achieve a 'red' status.