What happens during a dust storm?

Dust storms form when strong winds loft dust into the air. Those strong winds are usually the result of thunderstorm outflow, or exhaust — the cool, dense and dry air exiting a thunderstorm and surging ahead of it. That kicks up dust along the storm’s “outflow boundary.” The dust acts as a tracer marking the wind shift line. Anyone in the dust storm’s path will spy a massive shelf of dust, which will race toward them with 4o to 60 plus mph wind gusts and a drop in temperatures. Behind that initial outflow boundary, heavy rains within the thunderstorm can combine with remnant dust in the air to form muddy raindrops. Sometimes a larger area of wind not related to thunderstorms can have a similar effect. That periodically comes as a byproduct of synoptic-scale systems, or large-scale high and low pressure systems. Though there’s no formal distinction between the terms “dust storm” and “sandstorm,” the latter is usually reserved for these sorts of more widespread events. Sandstorms over Africa can occasionally suspend enough Saharan dust that some blows all the way across the Atlantic.

What makes dust storms so dangerous?

Aside from the wind, dust storms themselves aren’t as hazardous to people indoors. However, if a person is caught outdoors, the dust can be very problematic from a respiratory standpoint. The biggest threat from dust storms comes on the roadways. Erratic winds and abrupt drops in visibility can happen in seconds. The National Weather Service recommends drivers “pull to the side and stay alive” if they’re passing through an affected area when a dust storm hits. A dust storm warning is one of the 10 different alerts from the National Weather Service that can trigger a wireless emergency alert — the shrieking notification that can sometimes appear on your phone. The alert is an effort by the agency to avert vehicular injuries or fatalities by convincing motorists to get off the road. According to the American Meteorological Society, 232 people in the United States were killed by windblown dust events between 2007 and 2017.

How common are dust storms? Where do they happen?

Dust storms are most common in sandy or dusty areas that also experience periodic convection, or shower and thunderstorm activity. They’re relatively frequent occurrences in the Desert Southwest, mainly in Arizona and New Mexico. Phoenix and Tucson typically see a few blowing dust events every summer, with a major haboob every year or two. They are most likely to occur in July and August . They also can make appearances on the Plains if there are existing drought conditions. The soil is more earthen over the central United States and less sandy, so lofting granules is more challenging. The drier the topsoil, though, the easier it is to lift. There is high interannual, or year to year, variability in dust storm frequency over the central United States. The fringe seasons, particularly March to April and late October to November, are most prone to dust storms and blowing dust. That’s because the strong windy storm systems of winter are often present, but the dryness of summer is either making an appearance in the spring or lingering into the autumn. Sometimes derechos, or extremely windy thunderstorm complexes that track long distances, can induce their own dust storms. That was the case on May 12, 2022, in Iowa, Minnesota and the Dakotas.

What was the worst dust storm in history?

In the 1930s, drought, overfarming and poor agricultural practices across the High Plains combined to brew the infamous “Dust Bowl.” Between 1935 and 1938, 100 million square miles of the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles, northeast New Mexico, eastern Colorado and central and western Kansas were affected . Crop loss totaled the equivalent of nearly half a billion dollars per day by 1936. During one of the Dust Bowl-induced dust storms in 1935, dust blew all the way to Chicago, and red-tinged snow fell on New England that winter. The catastrophic economic loss fed into the Great Depression.

How dust storms happen, and why they’re so dangerous

Dust storms can contribute to massive highway pileups and turn day to night in an instant

By Matthew Cappucci

May 2, 2023 at 1:19 p.m. EDT

A dust storm moved through Montgomery County, Ill., on May 1, resulting in a large car pileup on Interstate 55. (Video: Nathan Cormier)

5 min

Dust storms are some of the most eerie and foreboding meteorological phenomena on the planet. Massive walls of sand, dust and grit — often a mile or more high and as much as several hundred miles long — race across the landscape, draping a hazel shroud overhead and extinguishing daylight.

The storms can be accompanied by 60 mph winds, visibilities of barely a few feet and a suffocating concentration of dust particles that can pose a respiratory risk to virtually anybody. They can lead to deadly pileups on interstates, and can render airports inoperable until conditions improve.

Dust storms, which are technically called haboobs, are most common in the Desert Southwest, but can make occasional appearances on the Plains and even in parts of the Corn Belt. Internationally, they’re found in northern Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, central Asia and China, but they have even occurred in Australia and South America.

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