China pollution: Beijing sandstorm turns sky to yellow and sun to blue
- Capital hit by second sandstorm in less than two weeks as air quality index tops out at 500
- Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Tianjin, Liaoning and Jilin also affected, Xinhua says
A sandstorm that hit Beijing on Sunday morning pushed air pollution levels off the charts, turned the sky yellow and reduced the sun to a blue dot.
The storm was the second to hit the Chinese capital in less than two weeks and came after the Beijing Meteorological Bureau issued a yellow warning (the second lowest in a four-tier system) on Saturday. It also warned of high winds and advised citizens to stay at home where possible.
As of noon on Sunday, the city’s air quality index had stopped rising, after hitting the maximum reading of 500.
On the Chinese social media platform Weibo, people shared pictures of the “blue sun”, a celestial phenomenon first seen in the skies above Beijing when the last sandstorm hit on March 15.
A Beijing Evening News report said the optical illusion was caused by “Rayleigh scattering”, which explains how the colours that make up sunlight are diffused by particles in the air.
The sandstorm was caused by strong winds carrying dust from drought-hit Mongolia and other parts of northwest China.