Pollution from Huge Sandstorm Hitting Shanghai Today
By Bridget O'Donnell
Break out the facemasks (and the sand goggles?), because dust particles from a major sandstorm in northern China are headed right towards Shanghai!
The sandstorm, which swept over northern China early Thursday morning, caused the AQI in Beijing to skyrocket to 905, and in other places to over 1,000. Our brethren up north were slammed with a blanket of nasty (and hazardous) dust and smog:
The smog led to lots of flight cancellations and delays.
According to a notice released by the Shanghai Environmental Monitoring Center and Shanghai Center Meteorological Observatory, Shanghai will be hit with dust from the storm starting early Friday evening (May 5), causing mild to moderate pollution.
From Friday evening until Saturday at around noon (May 5-6), PM10 levels are expected to rise to "severe." The pollution will hang over the city during the weekend and is expected to ease up on Sunday (May 7). Rain will then arrive on Sunday evening and Monday morning to help wash the dust remnants away.
Shanghai Daily reports that the AQI could surpass 200 while the pollution hits.
These maps show the areas projected to be hit by the sandstorm through the weekend:
Meanwhile, temperatures are expected to hit a high of 23 degrees on Friday, and will have some ups and downs throughout the weekend.
Our advice is to keep your facemask handy tonight and this weekend. We'd suggest keeping your windows closed, turning up the air purifiers and remaining indoors, too.
[Images via WeChat, Pure Living China]
To read more about Beijing's sandstorm yesterday, click "Read more" below.