Did you even know "Smoke" and "Dust" were actual weather conditions?
You learn something new every day.
The air around Heilongjiang capital Harbin was choked this weekend not only with the customary, suffocating smog but with a thick waft of burning crops as well, prompting the city's government to issue a yellow air pollution warning.
Photographs taken by one netizen from on board a passenger flight out of Harbin capture the full, unsettling scale of the panoramic inferno:
Farmers in the area surrounding the city were all burning straw stubble left over from wheat and other grains that had been harvested earlier.
Stubble burning causes terrible air pollution, kills nutrients in the soil and often leads to out-of-control fires. However, it also clears fields cheaply and quickly and kills weeds, slugs and other pests.
In much of the world, stubble burning is prohibited or strictly controlled by relevant legislation, and China is no exception. Despite a government ban, however, there remains little enforcement on the ground and the same scenes are repeated throughout the country at the end of every harvest season.
Last Thursday marked shuangjiang or "Frost's Descent," the 18th solar term on the Chinese calendar that traditionally marks the fall in temperature heralding the onset of winter, and when the dried stalks of grain left over from the autumn harvest are often disposed of.
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