Dust brought by strong north gales lingers in city

Screenshots from video footage captured by monitoring systems of the Shenzhen Meteorological Bureau. Photos from WeChat account "深圳特区报"

Affected by strong winds carrying sand and dust from Mongolia over the weekend, Shenzhen has experienced moderate air pollution over the past days, and a light haze is expected to persist until Wednesday.

A cold vortex from Mongolia swept across provinces in northern China from Friday afternoon through the weekend. Unusually powerful winds with gusts of up to 150 km/h forced the closure of historic sites and disrupted travel while bringing late snowfalls and hailstone showers in some areas.

A screenshot from video footage captured by monitoring systems of the Shenzhen Meteorological Bureau.

Over the weekend, 21 cities in Guangdong Province experienced varying degrees of air pollution, with Shenzhen recording moderate pollution. PM10 was the primary pollutant, according to the Guangdong Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment.

The dusty weather across the province will not end until Thursday when pollutants in the air will disperse, according to the provincial weather forecast.

According to Sun Qianqian, a meteorological analyst at Weather China, the typhoon-like winds raised and spread the dust southward rapidly.

Yang Guojie, chief forecaster at the Guangdong Provincial Meteorological Observatory, said that the winds were thick, meaning that high-altitude winds were also strong. This enabled some dust to cross the mountains en route and gradually reach the southern regions.