Ningbo lifts pollution alert
- Details
- Category: Ningbo News
- Published: Tuesday, 10 December 2013 13:48
Ningbo weather authority lifted its air pollution alert on Sunday as heavy smog that had lasted for days began to disperse away.
It is expected the weather conditions within the next 24 hours will help to clear up the pollutants. The good news is a drizzle started around 10:00 am in Ningbo's urban districts and its county-level cities including Xiangshan and Ninghai and helped to wash away pollutants. Zhang Qiming, the chief forecaster of local weather bureau, said there is a wind shift on Sunday, which brings rainfall at night and thus improves the air quality. As the weather conditions change, haze will not easily occur. However, the city might still see fog due to the high relative humidity. The smog is expected to disperse as a cold air sets to affect the city and brings high wind, which is likely to clear up the smog.
Ningbo's Air quality Index (AQI) stood at "heavily polluted" level since 8 am to 20:00 pm last Sunday. The good news is the AQI saw a downward trend: from 448 at 0:00, to 429 at 7:00am, to 399 at 12:00, to 376 at 15:00, to 342 at18:00, and to 257 at 23:00. In the mean time, the AQI in Ningbo's eight monitoring sites declined accordingly. At 18:00 pm on Sunday, AQI in Beilun District and Dongqian Lake dropped to 273 and 237, the level downgrading from "heavily polluted" to "seriously polluted". The AQI in the rest six sites also dropped to around 350.
The level of air pollution alert was also downgraded as AQI declined. Local weather authority lifted its top-level red alert for "thick smog or fog" at 14:20 on Sunday while the local weather authority and environmental authority jointly adjusted the air pollution level from the red alert to yellow alert, which was lifted at 20:00.
With the arrival of cold air on Monday, the strong north wind is likely to blow away the smog out of the city. Local weather authority announced at noon last Sunday the arrival of cold air, which might lead to a temperature drop from 5 to 7 degree Celsius and scale 7-9 northerly winds near the coast. The smog shrouded the city for days will be cleared up with the north wind. Local weather authority also suggests that citizens be aware of the temperature drop as the minimum temperature can be as low as two to three degree in urban districts and zero degree in mountainous area.
