A cold front from Mongolia on Saturday night had died away by yesterday noon, experts said.

Northeast China's Jilin Province was the most affected, suffering the first sandstorm of the winter yesterday along with slight rain and snow.

Beijingers also got a small taste of the winter to come.

The cold front is now getting weaker and is heading to the southeast, said Zhang Mingying, a meteorologist with the Beijing Meteorological Station.

"The cold front had in fact died away and only lasted for several hours," he added.

The front slowed down after it crossed Yinshan, in the central part of Inner Mongolia.

Along with the weakening front, sufficient surface water and a lack of sand in North China prevented turning the floating dust into a large scale sandstorm.

(China Daily November 12, 2002)