Chinese local weather forecasters told to halt issuing smog alerts
BEIJING: Chinese authorities have asked an unnamed Chinese province to turn off its early warning alert system for smog to avoid mismatches between environment and meteorological authority forecasts, state media reported late on Tuesday.
Nearly three years into a “war on pollution”, large swathes of northern China have been engulfed in smog over the New Year, with dangerous air quality readings in major cities like Beijing, Tianjin and Xian forcing many people to stay in doors.
Chinese authorities use a colour-coded system of alerts to warn companies, schools and individuals of incoming smog, and to try to fight the haze by limiting production in polluting industries and banning older cars from city streets.
The system’s accuracy and fair application has become the focus of public discussion, and people regularly take to the internet to question discrepancies in alerts issued by different Chinese authorities in different locations.
An image of a notice from the provincial capital’s weather forecasting authorities tells county and city forecasters to immediately cease releasing early warnings for smog was widely shared on Weibo, a popular Chinese microblog, on Tuesday. The Paper, an online publication under the governmentbacked Shanghai United media Group, confirmed the notice with an unnamed official from China’s National Meteorological Administration.