BEIJING — The national weather observatory issued a blue alert for sandstorms on Wednesday morning, forecasting sandy and dusty weather in China’s northwest regions.

Sandstorms blanketed parts of Beijing on Wednesday, an annual occurrence in arid northern China in the spring, when temperatures start to rise, stirring up clouds of dust that can travel across China to South Korea and Japan, and even to the United States.

Parts of Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Beijing, Tianjin, Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei and Jilin will be affected by the dusty weather from Wednesday afternoon to evening, said the National Meteorological Center.

Meanwhile, a strong cold front will sweep north China including areas along the Yellow and Huaihe rivers, bringing a temperature drop of as high as 12 degrees Celsius with strong winds, said the NMC.

China has a four color-tier-coded system for severe weather, with red being the most serious, followed by orange, yellow and blue.

Story compiled with information from CCTV America and Xinhua News.