How Far Does "Yellow Sand" Fly

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How Far Does "Yellow Sand" Fly

How far and fast can a Hwang Sa or 'Yellow Sandstorm' fly?
A research team at the University of Washington studying the phenomena discovered that a strong sandstorm which occurred in Shinzhang Province, China in April 1998 reached all the way to California.
It took only six days to fly a distance of 15,000 kilometers. The sandstorm, which is really a combination of sand, dust, and pollutants that give the sky a brown or yellow haze, separated into two parts: one flew along the California coastline while the other crossed eastward over the Rocky Mountains.
Large-scale dust and sand storms do not only occur only in China. Large amounts of sand swept up by wind occur in the Sahara Desert and fly across the Atlantic Ocean to Florida and the Bermuda Islands. Sandstorms also reach Europe.
Their speed depends on the velocity of air streams and the weight of the particles. On average, it takes four to eight days for sand storms originating in Central Asia to reach the Korean Peninsula.
However, the recent sandstorm from China reached Korea in only one day after riding in on the jet stream.
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