Beijing Sandstorm

The concentration of fine particulates in the air in Beijing is currently 46.2 times the World Health Organization's annual air quality guideline value, according to IQAir, a website that issues air quality data and information.

When the sandstorm kicked up larger particles of dust and dirt Wednesday, the air quality turned particularly vicious.

In parts of China's north and northwest, high winds and dust turned the sky a lurid tangerine, appearing to cut visibility to less than a few hundred metres in some places.

The Chinese capital Beijing woke on Sunday morning shrouded in thick dust carrying extremely high levels of hazardous particles, as a second sandstorm in two weeks hit the city due to winds from drought-hit Mongolia and northwestern China.

The Chinese capital Beijing was shrouded in thick brown dust on Monday as a result of heavy winds blowing in from the Gobi desert and parts of northwestern China, in what the metereological agency has called the biggest sandstorm in a decade.

Beijing's air quality index (AQI) soared to hazardous levels on Wednesday morning as a sandstorm smothered the Chinese capital in dust after triggering an alert late on Tuesday from the National Meteorological Center (NMC).

The concentration of fine particulates in the air in Beijing is currently 46.2 times the World Health Organization's annual air quality guideline value, according to IQAir, a website that issues air quality data and information.

When the sandstorm kicked up larger particles of dust and dirt Wednesday, the air quality turned particularly vicious.

In parts of China's north and northwest, high winds and dust turned the sky a lurid tangerine, appearing to cut visibility to less than a few hundred metres in some places.

The Chinese capital Beijing woke on Sunday morning shrouded in thick dust carrying extremely high levels of hazardous particles, as a second sandstorm in two weeks hit the city due to winds from drought-hit Mongolia and northwestern China.

The Chinese capital Beijing was shrouded in thick brown dust on Monday as a result of heavy winds blowing in from the Gobi desert and parts of northwestern China, in what the metereological agency has called the biggest sandstorm in a decade.

Beijing's air quality index (AQI) soared to hazardous levels on Wednesday morning as a sandstorm smothered the Chinese capital in dust after triggering an alert late on Tuesday from the National Meteorological Center (NMC).