Choked-up Beijing gets brief break from smog amid cold snap

Beijing and its nearby regions will have a short respite from the choking smog as a cold front flows in from the north, helping disperse air pollutants.

China’s Meteorological Administration said that the chill, which arrived on Monday, had significantly improved visibility in Beijing and neighbouring regions, including Hebei province. Beijing’s weather bureau, as a result, withdrew its yellow smog warning – the second lowest alert on its four-level scale – which was in force since Saturday.

A yellow warning means that the smog may persist for one day or more.

On Tuesday, nearly all air quality monitor stations across Beijing recorded an Air Quality Index (AQI) lower than 80, which are deemed “good” or “moderate” – the two best ones on a six-level scale, the official Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Centre Ö said.

A separate measurement by the US embassy at its facility in Beijing reported the average AQI in the city has stayed at lower than around 100 since midnight on Tuesday.

However, the China Meteorology Administration warned that the pollutants would likely to return later this week due to a weakening of cold fronts in the last ten days of October.

“The [weather] conditions for dispersing the pollutants are forecast to turn bad at around October 24 (Friday). Smog could mount up again,” the administration’s public service centre said on its website.