Following a number of heavy smog days in Beijing, the city authorities are all set to lift the orange alert for heavy air pollution at 12 am on February 27, 2014. A strong cold front is expected to clear the city’s smoggy weather, which lingered for about a week.
The announcement was made by the deputy head of the municipal environmental protection bureau, Yao Hui on February 26, 2014. Zhang Linna, the chief weather forecaster at Beijing Meteorological Station said, “The cold front, which is expected to reach Beijing on Wednesday night,will bring an average precipitation of 1 to 2 millimeters first, and then strong winds, dispersing the heavy smog that has blanketed the capital for seven days”.
The quality of air is expected to be ‘fairly good’ on February 27, 2014. The air quality index at monitoring stations is expected to drop between 51 and 100, from the previous 300-plus. Zhang went on to say that as more cold fronts are expected in the near future, the possibility of additional smog is unlikely in the upcoming week.
The government of Beijing issued a yellow alert for heavy air pollution on February 20, 2014 and the alert was then raised to orange on February 21, 2014. This was the first orange alert since the government set up the emergency response system in October 2013.
Photo Credits: Global Sherpa
