After a few days of really nasty pollution last week, strong winds on Saturday night and Sunday have blown the smog away from the skies above Beijing.
The U.S. Embassy’s air pollution monitoring Twitter feed has been displaying “no data” since last Friday when it recorded an Air Pollution Index (API) score in excess of 500 (i.e. very unhealthy), but the website of China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection says the air in Beijing today has an API of 192.
The sky certainly was blue yesterday in Beijing, as you can tell from these photographs taken at around 3pm. But it is difficult to tell what exactly the official numbers mean (see earlier Danwei story below for more on how the official statistics are calculated) .
This Monday morning is also clear, and there is still a wind that should keep the skies clean today.
Meanwhile, the latest tweet from the U.S. Embassy’s Beijing Air feed is:
11-22-2010; 09:00; PM2.5; no data // Ozone; 0.2; 0; No Reading
Did someone pull the plug on the machine after the “crazy bad” episode?
Update The Beijing Air feed is back online.
- Earlier on Danwei: The air in Beijing: 2010 and 2006 (with links to a variety of air pollution resources)
- Ministry of Environmental Protection: Air quality page
- China Dialogue: Fixing Beijing’s transport nightmare
- Yahoo / AP: US Embassy: Beijing air quality is ‘crazy bad’