BEIJING - A cold front will bring gales and dusty weather to Northwest China with a steep drop in temperatures, the National Meteorological Center forecasted on Sunday evening.

The front will chill parts of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Gansu Province and Inner Mongolia autonomous region starting from Monday night, with temperatures dropping up to 10 degrees Celsius.

Dusty weather is forecasted to hit the areas again after the region was blanketed by a heavy sandstorm on Wednesday.

The strongest sandstorm in 10 years reduced visibility to less than 20 meters in Gansu's Dunhuang City on Wednesday, forcing some schools to close.