PureInsight | May 14, 2006
[PureInsight.org] After the
large-scale sandstorm on April 16, a new severe sandstorm hit northern
China on April 21 and April 22. According to news reports, the areas
that the sandstorms reached include eight Northern provinces and
autonomous regions. Under the atrocious weather conditions, the
visibility was less than ten kilometers in many parts of Inner Mongolia
Autonomous Region, northern Ningxia Autonomous Region, Shaanxi
Province, Shanxi Province, northwestern part of Hebei Province and
western part of Beijing. The strong sandstorm in the central and
western part of Inner Mongolia caused the visibility to drop to less
than one thousand meters. In some places, the visibility was below five
hundred meters. The northern region of China has been hit by sandstorms
eleven times already in 2006.
According to the Chinese Central Environmental Monitoring Center, as of
April 19, 8 large-scale sandstorms have hit the eastern of northwestern
region of China in 2006. The areas affected include Hebei Province,
Shanxi Province, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Beijing and Tianjin.
Three out of the eight sandstorms were especially severe, taking place
from March 9 to March 12, from April 10 to April 13 and from April 16
to April 18, respectively. The other five sandstorms also caused the
affected regions to suffer from heavily flying sands and floating dust.
The sandstorms aggravate the environmental and air pollution in a half
of the major cities in China.
According to weather forecasts, two new sandstorms will hit China
within ten days of April 19. Besides the sandstorms, the northwestern
part of China will also encounter cold currents on April 21, 22 and
April 27.
From March to mid-April, the whole of China was attacked by intense
cold currents twice. The latter one, in April, was especially rare.
The strongly cold atmosphere caused snowfall this April. On April 6, it
snowed heavily in the northern suburbs of Beijing. At the foot of Mount
Badaling, everything was covered with thick snow. In Yanqing County,
snowflakes were raining down like dandelions with the diameter of an
average snowflake being about four centimeters. The snowfall lasted for
only a little more than one hour, but the snow covering the greenbelt
in Yanqing was as thick as three centimeters.
According to weather reports in China, there was also snowfall in the
middle and eastern parts of Hulunbeier city and the northeastern part
of Xinganmeng city in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region from the evening
of April 21 to April 23. Some places were attacked by severe
snowstorms. Meanwhile, other regions in Inner Mongolia, such as
northern Huhehaote city, Wulanchabu City, Xilinguole Meng, the northern
part of Chifeng city,the the northern part of Tongliao city, the
western part of Hulunbeier City and the northern part of Xinganmeng,
saw strong northwestern winds between five to six, up to seven on the
wind scale. Wulanchabu city, Xilinguole Meng and the northern part of
Chifeng city were also hit by a sandstorm. In the Midwest and eastern
part of Inner Mongolia, the temperature dropped six Celsius degrees
(10.8 Fahrenheit degrees) instantly.
From eight A.M. on April 22 to eight A.M. on April 23, snow was
expected to fall in the eastern part of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the
northeastern part of Inner Mongolia, the central and northern part of
northeastern China, and in the northwestern part of Xinjiang Province.
Some places in northeast Inner Mongolia were expected to be hit with
snowstorms.
Some regions in the rest of China, such as the northern part of Shaanxi
Province, the southwestern part of Shanxi Province, the southern part
of Henan Province, the western and southern part of Hubei Province, and
the eastern part of Sichuan Province have suffered from heavy fog. The
heavy fog reduced visibility in some regions to less than one hundred
meters. Many regions south to the central and lower reaches of the
Yangze River are expected to encounter major rainstorms and hail in the
near future.
In summary, since March, abnormal weather conditions have frequently
appeared in China, including continual sandstorms, rain, snowstorms and
unseasonable drops in temperature in many regions.
Translated from:
http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2006/4/23/36620.html
