Chinese officials advise millions of residents to stay indoors amid historic gale force winds

At 6:00 am on Thursday, the Beijing Meteorological Bureau, a branch of China Meteorological Administration, issued for northern China an amber, second highest level, warning for extremely high winds and a blue warning for sandstorms for the weekend from April 11 to 13.

Due to strong cold front, continuous, heavy snow was expected to occur in eastern Inner Mongolia and eastern Northeast China, while southern China would experience moderate to heavy rainfall. Ma Xuekuan, chief forecaster of the Central Meteorological Observatory, said this strong wind "has the characteristics of long duration, wide impact range, strong wind force and high disaster risk", and prevention would need to be strengthened.

At 9:00 am on Thursday, China Meteorological Administration launched Level 3 emergency response for major meteorological disasters (strong winds, rain and snow, severe convection, and sandstorms). This included issuing early warnings, sending out automated text messages, notifications in Weibo, WeChat, Alipay, and Baidu apps, and prevention and response work by emergency departments.

Some people weighing less than 50 kilograms or 110 pounds could reportedly "easily be blown away."

At 6:00 am on Sunday, the Central Meteorological Observatory continued to issue an amber warning for high winds and a blue warning for sandstorms.

Local torrential rain (100-142 mm) occurred in Sanya, Hainan, and Nantou, Taiwan.

Issuing of such a high-level weather alert for Beijing last happened over a decade ago.