Assessment of the extreme sand/dust storm disaster in North China on March 26th, 1862

Abstract

Case studies of extreme sand/dust storm disasters in history are crucial for better understanding of sand/dust storm, whereas the bottleneck is lack of data. This paper attempts to reconstruct and assess the spatial and temporal characteristics of an extreme sand/dust storm disaster in North China on March 26th, 1862. Through extensive examination of historical documents, abundant and detailed materials were found in the Diaries of Xianqiao Shanfang, The Diary of Weng Tonghe, Diary in Jinmen (Jinmen Wen Jian Lu), Qing History Manuscripts and 13 historical local chronicles. A large-scale sand/dust storm occurred in North China on March 26th, 1862, which lasted about three days, and its spatial range covered 34∼40°N, 116∼120°E. The storm was very strong, and the horizontal visibility reduced to <50 m in some areas, therefore can be classified as an ‘extra-strong sand/dust storm’. This disaster caused a large number of casualties, therefore can be classified as an “extremely severe sand/dust storm disaster”. Tianjin was particularly seriously hit, dozens of people died of it. At least for Tianjin, this could be an unprecedented sand/dust storm disaster in history.