Last week I experienced my first snow in Asia. Regardless of where I've been this winter -- whether here in South Korea, Malaysia, Czech Republic or Austria -- I haven't experienced any snow. Well, last Tuesday morning I woke up to a two inch layer of white stuff (manna from heaven) and it sure was beautiful! The kids at school were beside themselves making snowmen and thrashing each other with snowballs. The kids knew it would be gone by afternoon so they made the most of it during the morning hours. Sure enough, by the next day it had vanished and is now a distant memory.
Then today on my walk around campus, I thought something was different in the air. It seemed foggy but it wasn't moist. It seemed like it was ready to rain but there were no clouds in the sky. Not being able to put my finger on it, I put it out of my mind until a Korean in the tech department informed me that the weather service issued 'yellow wind' warnings for today. Since I don't have a TV here in Korea, this was the first time I had even heard of it.
In essence, what the Koreans call 'yellow wind' is actually a strong wind that picks up sand dust over the Gobi Desert then makes its way through China picking up pollution before dumping on numerous Asian countries. In fact, I've heard these winds can survive a 5-7 day journey and even impact North America! Yellow wind occurs because of deforestation and when the winds pick up during the warm spring temperatures in the months of March and April. Literally, there is a yellowish haze in the air that makes it difficult to see clearly. On days like this I'll see many people walking around with face masks (more so than normal) and today I was inclined to join them. It isn't that I can taste the sand but my throat is just a little more dry and gritty.
Here's a picture of a yellow wind day in Beijing China. It was nothing like this here -- the haze was much more subtle.
Anyway, just thought I would let you in on what I found interesting here this past week. I heard it's been a snowy winter for those of you in Canada so maybe we can arrange an exchange program... I'll swap you some yellow wind if you send over some more snow? If you're interested, give me a call and we'll set something up.
