Beijing's air pollution is bad enough, but to worsen things further for residents and workers in China's capital city, a sandstorm hit the city on Wednesday evening.

It was the strongest sandstorm to hit the city in 13 years, reports the Legal Mirror, that employees and residents rushed home for fear that they would be caught in Beijing's notorious gridlock. They made the mad rush after the national observatory issued a sandstorm yellow alert.

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A yellow alert is the third-most serious, meaning visibility would plummet below 1,000 meters. As a result of the sandstorm, coupled with Beijing's perennial air pollution problem, many areas in the city logged PM10 air pollution readings of almost 1,000 micrograms per cubic meter, considered a hazardous level.

Likewise, the U.S. embassy recorded readings of PM2.5 particulates over 300, also a hazardous level. The PM2.5 particulates are the most dangerous to human health.

The sandstorm dust went beyond Beijing and affected also parts of Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Tianjin, Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei and Jilin, according to the National Meteorological Service. This caused power outages and traffic in China's northwest region when the strong winds blew the dust and sand across the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region as visibility dropped to less than 10 meters.

Among the comments by Beijing residents was that it was dirty that one felt it was the end of the world. Another felt like they were residing in a desert. Many travelers had to wear face masks as protection against the dust.

The sandy weather turned the Beijing skyline to orange in the afternoon.

Authorities advised residents to stay indoors. Those who still went out and took photos found that the images showed smudged outlines of edifices and people, reports Shanghaiist.

In 2013, a similar sandstorm blanketed Beijing. City officials then blamed the sandstorm to Inner Mongolia where the weather disturbance came from.

Besides the sandstorm, China's National Meteorological Center forecast that a strong cold front would hit northern China, causing temperatures to drop to 12 degrees Celsius in some areas, particularly along the Yellow and Huaihe Rivers.

Tagssandstorm, Pollution