Today the skies are blue and the sun is shining. It is quite the contrast to the “Asian Dust” storm we experienced yesterday. Josh called me in the morning to warn me about yellow sand, (one of his co-workers told him about it). He said if I go outside I should wear a mask.

I had no idea what it was so I looked it up and found a chart on the Korea Meteorological Administration. The chart levels were still low when I checked, (they must not have been updated yet).

However later in the afternoon it looked really yellow outside. It was very bizarre.

So what is yellow sand? Apparently it is fine yellow sand from the Gobi desert in Mongolia that blows over to South Korean and Japan in the Spring. Deforestation and industrialization in China has made the “yellow dust storms” worse,  with more negative side effects (I have heard that it is loaded with toxins from pollution and can cause respiratory problems.)

So how do you know when to avoid it? The korea4expats.com website monitors the level of yellow sand. There is a box on the right hand side that says “Yellow Sand”. The levels today are 33 microgram/m3, and anything <100 micrograms/m3 is considered good. Now that I am aware of this interesting “phenomenon” I will monitor it and stay inside when it is really bad, (or wear a mask).

I wonder if this is why many Koreans wear those masks? At first I thought it might have something to do with the cold, or germs. A cloth mask is a good barrier for particulate matter, not very effective for germs.

It could be worse, it looks like the skies were actually orange in China.