“I can’t see the front” in the middle of the worst yellow dust… A bunch of flights canceled[영상]

A picture of downtown Beijing taken at the office of the JoongAng Ilbo Beijing General Administration. From the left, pictures were taken on March 15th, February 19th, and February 1st, 2021. Reporter

On the 15th, as the northern regions, including Beijing, China, were covered with the worst yellow dust in 10 years, warnings were issued and flights were canceled in many places.

According to the Hong Kong South China Morning Post (SCMP), on the 15th, China’s Central Meteorological Bureau will run 12 provinces ranging from Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces in northern Xinjiang and Gansu on the 15th. A yellow yellow dust warning was issued saying that yellow dust appeared extensively in the city of direct jurisdiction. Chinese media reported that the yellow dust, which originated near Inner Mongolia, is the strongest among the yellow dust that has occurred in China in the last 10 years.

In southern Mongolia, the yellow dust from southward riding the air current the night before began to affect Beijing and other northern regions in the early morning of the 15th. On this day, more than 400 flights were canceled in Beijing as a strong wind struck along with yellow dust. In the case of Daxing Airport, located in the south of Beijing, visibility once fell to 400m, and a gust of 15-17m per second blew.

Beijing is hit by the worst yellow dust in 10 years. [웨이보 캡처]

According to the homepage of the China Environmental Monitoring Center (CNEMC), the air quality index (AQI) at 8 am in Beijing on this day rose to 500, the highest level that can be expressed in numerical terms even at the level of’severe pollution (AQI 301~500)’. At one time in the morning, the concentration of fine dust (PM 10) rose to 2,000㎍/㎥, and the concentration of ultrafine dust (PM 2.5) also recorded 223㎍/㎥. The yellow sand made the Beijing sky yellow, and even strong winds made outdoor activities impossible. The Central Meteorological Bureau urged residents to refrain from going out and predicted that the yellow dust would continue until the night of the 15th.

China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported that a sand storm occurred in various regions of Mongolia on the night of the 12th, causing a number of deaths and missing persons. Mongolian authorities said at least six people were killed and 548 were missing. Since then, 467 of the missing persons have been confirmed to survive, and the search is ongoing to confirm the lives and deaths of the remaining 81. In several regions, including the Dundgobi region in southern Mongolia, a large-scale power outage occurred as a telephone pole collapsed in a gust of 30 to 34 meters per second.

This yellow dust is expected to affect the Korean Peninsula on the 16th. The Meteorological Administration said, “There is a high possibility that yellow sand will flow into Korea mainly in the west by taking the north wind on the morning of the 16th.”

Reporter Jeong Young-gyo, Researcher Jang Min-soon [email protected]