Move FM Global News

BEIJING, China: As Beijing continues to see constant air pollution, thick unseasonal sandstorms are expected to hit the capital and several provinces throughout this week.

Chinese forecasters have advised citizens of respiratory dangers presented by the pollution, along with very low visibility while traveling, state media reported.

Forecasters also issued a blue weather alert warning due to sandstorms. China has a four-tier, color-coded weather-warning system, with red representing the most severe warning and blue the least severe.

This week, smog and misty grey clouds could be seen enveloping Beijing and the city’s real-time air quality index was at a serious pollution level, according to the website of the Beijing Municipal Ecological and Environmental Monitoring Center.

A dozen provinces, including Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan and Hubei, Inner Mongolia and metropolis Shanghai, will be affected by sandstorms and major dust until mid-week, the Central Meteorological Observatory said.

A Chinese government official at the Ministry of Ecology and Environment recently said the number of sandstorms was now four times higher than in the 1960s, a consequence of rising temperatures and lower precipitation in the deserts of north China and neighboring Mongolia.