I guess it wasn't all cloud

I mentioned yesterday that, after a spell of very cold and very clear days in Beijing, the ferociously cleansing wind from the northwest had abated and the dark laden air had returned, held in place by an inversion layer. As a reminder, the view out my window yesterday at 10am:



I rounded off the post with a chipper hope that all I was seeing was cloud.

Apparently not.

Thanks to Michael Standaert's China Notebook report, with a link to this official daily Chinese government pollution-reading site, the air pollution index yesterday was an almost incredible 246. A full discussion of the ins and outs of pollution measure, and how China counts some pollutants differently from the way the US or Europe does, is here. But this chart, from the same Beijing Air Blog as in the previous link, might get the point across. You'll note that 246 is not even on the scale.

To put it differently: I think it's likely that people in the United States, unless they have been in a forest-fire zone, have not in many decades experienced a 246-scale day. That could be wrong -- can't find data at the moment -- but the general impression is correct. And the only other thing I can say is: I think I'll have one of my remaining Sam Adams beers and see how it looks tomorrow.