cross-posted from: mander.xyz/post/55196744
Record-breaking dust storms sent pollution levels soaring in China and the US-Mexico border region in 2025, disrupting transport, shutting schools and airports, and sending thousands to emergency rooms, according to a new World Meteorological Organization (WMO) report.
Overall, average dust concentrations in 2025 were similar to the previous year, but the regional extremes were severe, the WMO Airborne Dust Bulletin found. It is the tenth in the annual series.
Around 2,000 million tonnes of dust enter the atmosphere each year, with dust storms now affecting more than 150 countries forcing schools, highways and airports to shut down.
“More than 80% of [global dust] originates from the North African and Middle Eastern deserts and can be transported for hundreds and even thousands of kilometres across continents and oceans,” WMO said. “Much of this is a natural process, but poor water and land management, drought and environmental degradation are increasingly to blame.”
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In East Asia, dust swept from Mongolia across most of China from 10 to 14 April in the country’s most extensive sand and dust storm in a decade, ranked by intensity, reach and duration, WMO said.
The desert border region of Mexico and the United States saw exceptionally frequent, intense and prolonged storms. El Paso, Texas experienced 50 days of dust weather in 2025, more than double the annual average as its 12 dust storms were the most since 1935, at the height of the Dust Bowl.
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