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Wind blows in pollution from the north
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SHANGHAI yesterday suffered one of its worst days of the year so far with choking smog taking air quality readings into the “severely polluted” range.
Residents woke to find nearby buildings hidden behind a grey mist with the sun struggling to break through the haze.
The city’s environmental monitoring center said dirty air blown in from northern China was to blame.
The air quality index surged to 313 at 11am and remained in the severely polluted range throughout the afternoon.
However, wind in the evening began to disperse the pollutants and by 7pm the index had dropped to 158. Three hours later it was 42.
The concentration of PM2.5 particles, those particularly hazardous to health, was 253 micrograms per cubic meter at 3pm, 10 times the figure the World Health Organization considers safe. By 7pm it had gone down to 119 micrograms and was 28 at 10pm.
Officials at the center said that a change in wind direction should improve conditions overnight. By tomorrow the city is expected to be smog-free with some light rain helping to clear the air.
“Unlike the past few days’ clear skies and clean air, today’s air quality is bad, which makes us feel kind of uncomfortable,” one man out walking said.
A mother taking her child out for a stroll said they would be spending more time indoors because of the pollution.
The city’s weather forecasters said that skies will be mostly cloudy today, with temperatures reaching 13 degrees Celsius from a low of 5 degrees. Tomorrow may see some light rain and a peak temperature of 17 degrees while Sunday will be overcast and drizzly with temperatures ranging between 12 and 15 degrees.
Similar temperatures will be seen on Monday which will be dry. Tuesday will also be dry but temperatures will drop by 3 degrees, forecasters said.
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