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Sandstorm are likely to blanket much of the nation between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, three days after the worst-ever seasonal sandstorm hit the nation, weather forecasters say.
The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said Monday strong sandstorms with fine dust concentration level up to 10,000§¶/§© that hit Inner Mongolia and the Gobi Desert until Monday afternoon will probably be blown into Korea by northwesterly winds.
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A picture taken from Mt.Namsan on Saturday, when heavy seasonal sandstorms blanketed the nation.
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¡°There may be changes in the path of the sandstorms, but we cannot rule out that they will pass across the Korean Peninsula,¡± a KMA official said. ¡°We will be able to tell what course they take after Tuesday afternoon.¡± He said there is a statistical likelihood of two or three more sandstorms until May.
The Chinese Central Meteorological Station also said Monday that this spring¡¯s worst sandstorm started on Sunday in the Gobi Desert and plateau area.
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A picture taken from Mt.Namsan on Monday, after rain washed away dust from sandstorms that blanketed most of the nation over the weekend
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There were on average 3.6 days of spring sandstorms between 1971 and 2000. But the figure could double this year, which has already seen four such storms. Chinese meteorologists say cold air in Siberia and the Mongolian Plateau is more active than in the past and thus increasing the number of sandstorms. KMA data show that there was only one sandstorm in the spring of 1986 and 1987, but 21 days in 1995 and 31 days in 2001, indicating that the uninvited guest is visiting the nation with increasing frequency.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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