China News Service, Hohhot, January 13th (Reporter Li Aiping) Shortly after the cold wave, several cities in the western part of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in northern Xinjiang were hit by sand and dust weather.

On the 13th, this dusty weather became more and more intense.

　　According to a report from the Central Meteorological Observatory, starting from January 10, sand or dust has occurred in central and western Inner Mongolia, central and northern Gansu, Ningxia, northern Shaanxi, Shanxi, southern Hebei, and northern Henan. Minqin, Gansu and Wulatehouqi, Inner Mongolia Sandstorms occur in other places, and the minimum visibility is 300 meters; the local peak PM10 concentration in central Inner Mongolia exceeds 1000 micrograms/m3.

The picture shows the dust weather in Baotou city.

Photo by Li Aiping

　　According to the Meteorological Department, this is the earliest dusty weather process since 2002.

　　Regarding this inclement weather, the first thing that actually touched was the Alxa League in western Inner Mongolia.

　　According to the Meteorological Department of Alxa League, from January 10 to 12, large-scale wind and sandstorms have occurred in the league for three consecutive days, with sandstorms in some areas.

　　In response to the large-scale wind and dust weather process, the Meteorological Observatory of the League issued the first phase of gale blue warning signal and the third phase of gale yellow warning signal. The Ejinaqi Meteorological Observatory and Ayouqi Meteorological Observatory issued the local first this year on the afternoon of January 12. A yellow warning signal for sandstorms.

　　Niu Xin, a local citizen in the Alxa League, told reporters, “This dusty weather has brought inconvenience to our travel. Everyone has important things and would rather stay at home for a day.” The local herders said: “All doors and windows are closed. The sand and dust cover the pasture, and we cannot herd sheep."

　　On the 13th, the sandy weather in Baotou, Hohhot and other places in central and western Inner Mongolia caused many people to say with emotion, "The whole sky seems to be under sand."

　　In the afternoon of the same day, the reporter saw in Baotou City that the entire sky was dim, and there were occasional pedestrians rushing on the street and rarely stopped.

The picture shows the vehicles on the streets of Baotou covered in dust.

Photo by Li Aiping

　　Local citizen Zhou Yi said: "Today, a layer of soil fell on the entire roof of the car."

　　According to news from the Hohhot Meteorological Department, on the 13th, dusty weather occurred in most areas of the city, and the visibility dropped to 1-5 kilometers.

　　The reporter learned from the Meteorological Department of Inner Mongolia that most of the central and western parts of Inner Mongolia have experienced continuous sandstorms in the past few days. Among them, the Ejina Banner of the Alxa League, the northern Ayou Banner, and the northern Azuo Banner have experienced large-scale sandstorms for three consecutive days.

On the 12th, a sandstorm occurred in Dalaihubu Town, Ejina Banner, with a minimum visibility of 393 meters.

　　According to the monitoring of the Department of Ecology and Environment of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, at 14:00 on the 13th, the air quality index of Ordos, Hohhot, Bayannaoer, Ulanchabu, and Baotou reached the top value of 500, and the air quality was seriously polluted.

　　China Environmental Monitoring Station predicts that from the 15th to the 16th, due to the influence of the systemic cold high pressure southward and the northerly cold air process in the direction of the northeast Bohai Bay, the diffusion conditions will improve, and the impact of the sand and dust process in North China and Northwest China will gradually tend to End.

Obviously, this round of sand and dust weather in central and western Inner Mongolia will also come to an end.

　　The data shows that the level of sand and dust weather is mainly divided according to the visibility of the ground level at the time of the sand and dust weather, followed by five levels: floating dust, blowing sand, sand storm, strong sand storm and super strong sand storm.

(Finish)