Cold air brings strong winds, sand, dust to northwest China

Northwest China's Gansu and Ningxia have experienced windy and dusty weather over the weekend due to cold air.

Triggered by the cold air, strong winds with speed of more than 10 meters per second swept many parts of Gansu from Saturday to Sunday, with gusts reaching speed of more than 17 meters per second. Blowing sand and floating dust were reported in some locations.

Most parts of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region were also hit by strong winds with gusts with speed of around 20 meters per second, accompanied by blowing sand and falling temperature.

Maximum daytime temperatures across the region dropped to minus 3 to 2 degrees Celsius on Sunday, according to forecasts released by Ningxia's Ecology and Environment Department and the region's meteorological authorities.

The lowest temperatures are expected to fall further to minus 11 to minus 8 degrees Celsius early Monday morning and the region is likely to experience heavy air pollution, according to the weather forecast.

The United States' international trade deficit in goods and services was 57.3 billion U.S. dollars in February, up 4.9 percent from January, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce on Thursday.

The country's imports of goods and services increased by 4.3 percent month on month to 372.1 billion U.S. dollars in February, as the surging demand for artificial intelligence and data center construction significantly boosted imports of products such as computers and semiconductors.

U.S. exports of goods and services in February rose by 4.2 percent month on month to 314.8 billion U.S. dollars, mainly driven by increases in exports of non-monetary gold and natural gas.