TURPAN CITY, northwest China (Reuters) — Over 4,500 people got stranded Sunday as gusts of wind blowing at over 100 kilometers per hour forced to stop some 150 motor vehicles along a highway and four trains in Turpan City, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
Triggered by a Siberian cold front, high winds started to blow late on Sunday, with increasing speeds and having caused a sandstorm along the way.
Local firefighting department has dispatched two armored vehicles to rescue people stranded in their cars along the G30 Expressway near the wind gap of Xiaocao Lake. In all they have rescued 51 people and transferred them to a service center.
The Xiaocao Lake is a typical wind gap due to its flat lake bed. The highest wind velocity of a gale as recorded in 2014 by the nearby Daban Wind Farm is over 180 kilometers per hour.
