People urged to prepare for sandstorms

China's top forestry and grassland authority said on Friday that it will promptly issue warnings and take emergency measures in response to the sandstorms that are forecast to be more frequent and powerful this month.

Sun Tao, a senior engineer from the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, shared the information via video link after the country's National Meteorological Center predicted that most areas in northern China are about to experience sandstorm weather on Saturday, with severe sandstorms in some local areas.

Driven by intense cold air, North China is expected to continue experiencing historically rare gale weather in the following days, which will bring serious sandstorms to some areas in Gansu province and Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia autonomous regions, according to Sun who specializes in desertification monitoring for the administration.