China News Service, Beijing, March 16 (Reporter Ruan Yulin) As the sand and dust belt moved southward, the area of ​​severe dust pollution in China continued to expand on the 16th. Many cities in Shanxi, Shandong, Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu and other provinces Serious pollution occurred.

　　On the evening of the 14th, affected by the transit of the northwest cold air system, the sand and dust process from the central and eastern parts of Mongolia began to affect the territory of China, and the concentration of inhalable particulate matter (PM10) in several cities in Inner Mongolia increased sharply.

As of 10 o'clock on the 15th, the hourly air quality index (AQI) value of 30 cities in most of Inner Mongolia, the border of Mongolia, Gansu, Shaanxi and Ningxia, central and northern Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, western Northeast China, northwestern Shanxi, and eastern Xinjiang has "exploded"; The 10-hour PM concentration in 23 cities including Ordos and Zhangjiakou exceeded 1,000 micrograms per cubic meter.

Data map: From March 13th to 15th, strong winds and sandstorms continued to occur in Jinta County, Jiuquan City, Gansu, seriously affecting public travel.

Photo by Yang Lu

　　As the sand-dust belt moved to the south, the scope of sand-dust pollution continued to expand on the 16th.

The China Environmental Monitoring Center showed that at 11 o'clock on March 16th, Taiyuan, Jincheng, Linfen, Xuzhou, Lianyungang, Suqian, Bengbu, Huainan, Chuzhou, Fuyang, Jinan, Zibo, Zhengzhou, Kaifeng, Luoyang, Xi'an, Lanzhou, Xining, The air quality in Yinchuan and other cities is seriously polluted, with the hourly air quality index (AQI) reaching or exceeding 500.

　　Experts said that cold air in the northwest usually cleans up the pollution in downstream areas, but this time the cold air carries a high concentration of sand and dust. Sudden dust storms have caused the air quality in many places to deteriorate rapidly.

　　The Ministry of Ecology and Environment stated that on the 16th, as the sand and dust gradually moved southward, the affected area may spread to Central China and the central and northern parts of the Yangtze River Delta. Due to the impact of the sandstorm, the overall regional air quality is characterized by pollution with PM10 as the primary pollutant.

It is expected that from the 17th to the 18th, affected by the northeastward cold air and the downstream precipitation process, the regional sand and dust process will gradually settle and clear.

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