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Formed | March 14, 2021 |
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Dissipated | March 27, 2021 |
Fatalities | 10 dead |
Areas affected | Mongolia China (Ningxia, Qinghai, Gangsu, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Hebei, Beijing, Henan, Shandong) North Korea South Korea |
The 2021 East Asia sandstorm was a meteorological phenomenon that began in the Eastern Gobi desert steppe on March 14, [1] and subsequently spread to the entire Mongolian Plateau South, the Loess Plateau, the North China Plain [2] and the Korean Peninsula. It was caused by strong northwest winds coming in from Mongolia, as a result of hot and dry conditions. [3] [4]
Beijing and cities in the Mongolian Plateau [5] regularly experience sandstorms in March and April, partially due to their proximity to the Gobi Desert. [6] [7] The issue has been compounded since the 1950s due to widespread deforestation and soil erosion. [8] [9] In particular, forests on the border with Mongolia were cut down, which previously provided protection against sand from the Gobi Desert. [9] In 1978, China started the Three-North Shelter Forest Program to counteract the effects, in particular by planting new trees on 35 million hectares of land to trap incoming dust. [10] Air corridors were also created to allow sand to pass more quickly. The country's Ministry of Ecology and Environment said these measures were reducing the impact and duration of sandstorms. [6] [8] The average number of sandy days in Beijing has fallen from 26 in the 1950s to 3 in 2010. [10]
Immediately prior to the sandstorm, Beijing had been experiencing high levels of pollution, with the city covered in smog, as a result of heavy industry work to recover from the pandemic. [6] [10]
In Mongolia the sandstorm caused 10 deaths. [11] In three cities in the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia schools were cancelled and the public transport system was temporarily halted. [12] Flights out of Hohhot, Inner Mongolia's capital, were grounded. [6]
The sandstorm was the strongest experienced in Ningxia in 19 years. [13] Outdoor activities in schools had been cancelled, although schools were left open. [14]
The sandstorm ended in the east, before appearing again in Wuhai on March 19. [15] On March 20, a blue alert for sandstorms was issued in central Inner Mongolia, Ningxia and the North China Plain, but spread further west to Xinjiang as well. [16]
The sandstorm was the biggest to hit China in a decade, causing pollution levels in some districts to rise to 160 times the recommended limit. [6] [4] It affected 12 provinces in China, including the Chinese capital Beijing which the storm hit on March 15. [4]
Visibility in Beijing was lowered to less than 1,000 feet (300 m). [17] Over 400 flights at the city's main airports – Capital Airport and Daxing Airport – were cancelled, a fifth of all flights and more than the typical number for Asian Dust sandstorms. [1] [18] Visibility at the Beijing Daxing airport had dropped to 400–800 metres. [19] PM2.5 levels in Beijing reached a maximum 680 micrograms per cubic meter, the highest levels seen since May 2017, [10] and the PM10 air quality index peaked at a maximum reading of 999. Guidelines from the World Health Organization suggest that PM2.5 levels above 25 μg/m^3 are unsafe. [20] PM10 levels reached over 8,100 micrograms per cubic metre in six central districts. [4] Schools have been told to cancel outdoor events, and people with respiratory diseases, as well as children and older residents, were advised to stay indoors. [4] [17] [21]
The city of Tangshan – a major source of industrial pollution – stated it would sanction companies for not carrying out emergency anti-smog measures. [8]
China's environment ministry stated the storm would dissipate by 18 March. [6]
On March 16, the sandstorm reached western South Korea. The Korea Meteorological Administration forecasted "very bad" PM10 levels – over 151 micrograms per cubic meter – in the Seoul Capital Area and on Jeju Island, as well as the provinces of Chungcheong and Jeolla. The agency also predicted "bad" levels in the provinces of Gangwon and Gyeongsang, though the actual levels ended up being "very bad". [22] [23]
The China Meteorological Administration issued a yellow alert for sandstorms, and the meteorological department for Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, together with Jiuquan, Gansu and Yulin, Shaanxi, issued orange alerts, the second highest level. [19] [24] [25]
Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes two-thirds of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a small section of China's border with Russia. Its capital is Hohhot; other major cities include Baotou, Chifeng, Tongliao, and Ordos.
Ningxia, officially the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region in Northwestern China.
Beijing is a municipality located in North China at the northern tip of the North China Plain, near the meeting point of the Xishan and Yanshan mountain ranges. The city itself lies on flat land that opens to the east and south. The municipality's outlying districts and counties extend into the mountains that surround the city from the southwest to the northeast. The highest peaks are over 2,000 m (6,600 ft).
Baotou is the largest city by urban population in Inner Mongolia, China. Governed as a prefecture-level city, as of the 2020 census, its built-up area made up of its 5 urban districts is home to 2,261,089 people with a total population of 2,709,378 accounting for counties under its jurisdiction. The city's namesake, literally translated to "place with deer", is of Mongolic origin or "Lucheng", meaning "City of Deer". Alternatively Baotou is known as the "City of Steel in Gobi". Steel was a major industry in the city. Today, Baotou refines over half of the rare-earth minerals produced in the world. This has led to environmental contamination near the industrial sites.
Ulanqab or Ulan Chab is a region administered as a prefecture-level city in south-central Inner Mongolia, China. Its administrative centre is in Jining District, which was formerly a county-level city. It was established as a prefecture-level city on 1 December 2003, formed from the former Ulanqab League. The Ulanqab Stadium is located in the city.
Shizuishan, formerly Shizuizi, is a prefecture-level city in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. It is the northernmost prefecture in Ningxia and the second most populous, after the regional capital Yinchuan, bordered by Inner Mongolia to all directions except the south. Shizuishan sits on the western bank of the Yellow River on the western side of the Ordos Loop. It was formerly a center for caravans traveling the northern routes to and from Beijing across the Ordos Desert.
Wuzhong is a prefecture-level city in the Ningxia autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It was known as Yinnan Prefecture before it was upgraded to a prefecture-level city in 1998. In 2019, Wuzhong had a population of 1.4 million. Wuzhong is located in the Northwest of China, with the Yellow River flowing through the center of the city.
A cashmere goat is a type of goat that produces cashmere wool, the goat's fine, soft, downy, winter undercoat, in commercial quality and quantity. This undercoat grows as the days get shorter and is associated with an outer coat of coarse hair, which is present all the year and is called guard hair. Most common goat breeds, including dairy goats, grow this two-coated fleece.
The Subei Mongol Autonomous County is an autonomous county within the prefecture-level city of Jiuquan in the northwest of Gansu Province, China, bordering Xinjiang to the west, Qinghai Province to the southeast and Mongolia's Govi-Altai Province to the north. Containing the northernmost point in Gansu, Subei is split into two non-contiguous sections and has an area of 66,748 km2 (25,772 sq mi) and had approximately 13,046 inhabitants in 2000. To the east it shares a border with Ejin Banner, Alxa League, Inner Mongolia.
Bayannur or Bayannao'er is a prefecture-level city in western Inner Mongolia, People's Republic of China. Until 1 December 2003, the area was called Bayannur League.
The Great Green Wall, officially known as the Three-North Shelter Forest Program, also known as the Three-North Shelterbelt Program, is a series of human-planted windbreaking forest strips (shelterbelts) in China, designed to hold back the expansion of the Gobi Desert, and provide timber to the local population. The program started in 1978, and is planned to be completed around 2050, at which point it will be 4,500 kilometres (2,800 mi) long.
The Beijing Weather Modification Office is a unit of the Beijing Meteorological Bureau tasked with weather control in Beijing, and its surrounding areas, including parts of Hebei and Inner Mongolia.
Ejin is a banner in the far west of Inner Mongolia, China. It is under the administration of Alxa League and is the westernmost county-level division of Inner Mongolia, bordering Gansu province to the west and Mongolia's Bayankhongor and Govi-Altai Provinces. Its seat is located at Dalaihob Town. To the west, it shares a border with Subei Mongol Autonomous County of Jiuquan, Gansu.
The 2010 China drought and dust storms were a series of severe droughts during the spring of 2010 that affected Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Sichuan, Shanxi, Henan, Shaanxi, Chongqing, Hebei and Gansu in the People's Republic of China as well as parts of Southeast Asia including Vietnam and Thailand, and dust storms in March and April that affected much of East Asia. The drought has been referred to as the worst in a century in southwestern China.
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