Sandstorm leaves Beijing, but may return

Most of the sandstorm that swept across Beijing on Monday left the city on Tuesday morning and moved southward, but it may blow back later on Tuesday, the city’s environmental authority said.

Some central and southern regions will be affected by the moving sand and dust on Tuesday, including Shanxi, Shandong, Henan and Anhui provinces, forecasters said.

The average concentration of hazardous airborne PM10 particles in Beijing dropped from 923 micrograms per cubic meter on Monday night to 107 mcg/cu m on Tuesday morning, according to the Beijing Ecological and Environmental Monitoring Center.

The possibility of a dust blowback into the city is low, but it might affect air quality to some extent into Wednesday.

Beijing's meteorological department issued a yellow alert for sandstorms, the third-most-hazardous level on Monday morning. It was lifted at 6:50 am on Tuesday morning.