That time of year again

The weather is warming up, and it's coming up to that time of year again when I will be checking the kousa (yellow sand) site as often as I check the weather site. Lovely spring days plus yellow sand and anthropogenic aerosols from China equals face mask weather. There has already been a couple of days of it, just before I got back from holiday. I was happy to miss it. It started rather early this spring, and I think it's getting worse every year. Last spring I wasn't able to get a single picture of cherry blossoms against a blue sky. Clear skies did not happen, at least on the days when I was out with my camera.

How boring. How inconvenient.

How bloody annoying.

Actually the sand/aerosols site will be an interesting one to watch when the Olympics are on. I've never particularly noticed the weather patterns in summer in China, but I've heard from friends visiting Beijing in summer that it is very hot and the air is not clean at all. How much of that sort of rubbish in the air can the athletes tolerate, I wonder?