Cold snap, dust storm blanket parts of NW China in rare yellow snow

A rare yellow snowfall covered Urumqi City of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on December 1, 2018.

A combination of heavy winds and freezing temperatures led to a rare 'yellow snow' phenomenon in China's Xinjiang region over the weekend.

"Heavy dust intertwined with winds affected cities from the north to south. Because of low temperatures, it snowed and the dust came at the same time." He Qing, director of the Xinjiang Meteorological Administration, told the Xinhua news agency.

"In the early stage, what was falling mainly contained snow. But in the later stage, it was mainly dust," he said.

Featured image credit: Weibo