It's happening, it's finally happening! Spring is in the air. If you hadn't already, throw away those thermals (or stash them for next year), and roll up your sleeves! But still wear a coat, because mornings and evenings will be chilly until we really hit summer.

Weather reports show a high of 21 degrees Celsius this Friday, but consistently higher temperatures in the middle of the afternoon from now on. And that's a good thing, because our heaters will be turned off Tuesday, March 15.

Unfortunately, the balmy air seems to come paired with erratic pollution spikes, as seen in the aqcast.com screenshot above right. The forecast on their website shows a huge cloud of pollution heading towards Beijing on Wednesday (Mar 16) and Thursday (Mar 17), with the air not clearing until Friday (Mar 18) and the rest of the weekend.

AirVisual, on their new website, predicts similarly high levels of pollution for the next few days (for the Dongsi, Beijing area), with heavy pollution hitting Tuesday early morning and persisting.

AirVisual pollution prediction Monday

AirVisual pollution prediction Tuesday

AirVisual pollution prediction Wednesday

Looks like although we are finally dumping the heavy clothes, we're going to have to stick to protecting ourselves from pollution. To check which Beijing restaurants and bars filter their air,click here, or to find an air purifier in our Classifieds, click here.

Instagram: s.xuagram

Photos: AQCast, Screenshot, AirVisual, Huffington Post

Margaux Schreurs (thebeijinger)