An incredible video has emerged showing the moment a fierce sandstorm blotted out the sun and turned the sky orange as it blasted through China.
The freak weather event started on Wednesday over China's northwestern Qinghai province and lasted for around four hours before slowing down, according to meteorology site AccuWeather and CNN.
In stunning clips posted by locals on social media, the storm is seen stretching over the horizon of a desert landscape and seemingly targeting the motorists caught in its path.
Areas worst hit included the Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, where terrified locals were forced to shelter until the raging storm passed.
While the sandy winds swirled, all traffic in the local area came to a halt.
The South China Morning Post reported that at its peak, visibility plunged below 200 metres in some parts of the province, blocking out the sun.
It comes as China prepares to suffer the return of more heatwaves over the next 10 days from east to west.
Some coastal cities are already on their highest alert level and officials in inland regions have warned of dam failure risks because of melting glaciers.
A sharp temperature spike is expected on Saturday, before building up into heatwaves, defined as periods of atypically hot weather of three days or more.
This Saturday is the day of the "big heat" in the Chinese Almanac based on the lunar calendar.
The hot spell is expected to be similar in scope as heatwaves from July 5-17, but more regions could be hit by temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) or higher, Fu Jiaolan, chief forecaster at the National Meteorological Centre, told state media.
Some cities in Zhejiang province, home to many factories and exporters, on Friday issued red alerts, the highest in a three-tier warning system, forecasting temperatures of at least 40C in the next 24 hours.
The load on the national power grid could reach a new high this summer as demand for air-conditioning by homes, offices and factories surges, with safe operation facing "severe tests", the Ministry of Emergency Management warned on Friday.
"For all of the factories in China and in Shanghai we have regulations that need to be followed," said Leo Zhang, president of chemical product maker Sika China.
"Every year we do things to make the work more comfortable, for example giving workers ice-creams when it gets too hot."
Zhejiang, as well as parts of Fujian, Guangdong, Hunan, Jiangxi and the city of Chongqing, also stand at risk of forest fires in the near term, the ministry said.
