{"id":181318,"date":"2025-08-28T02:39:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T02:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/181318\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T02:39:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T02:39:10","slug":"more-dust-storms-called-haboobs-are-coming-thanks-to-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/181318\/","title":{"rendered":"More dust storms called haboobs are coming, thanks to climate change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>For anyone wondering whether intense dust storms, such as the haboob that enveloped Phoenix this week, are possible in Southern California, the answer is yes. <\/p>\n<p>They\u2019ve hit in the recent past and are a growing issue over much of Southern California and the Central Valley, thanks to the drying associated with climate change, water overuse, wildfire, off-roading, tractors on dry soil, and construction, experts say. <\/p>\n<p>In 2022, for instance, there was a <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.watereducation.org\/aquafornia-news\/scientists-warned-salton-sea-disaster-no-one-listened\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">massive haboob in the Salton Sea area.<\/a> The dust from that nighttime storm \u2014 with a 3,000-foot-high wall of dust and 60-mph winds \u2014 went all the way to Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was insane,\u201d said Amato Evan, a climate researcher at UC San Diego\u2019s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. It was so thick that cameras picked it up in Riverside, he said. More sensitive instruments measured the particles all the way from Lake Elsinore to Pasadena and downtown Los Angeles. He said a similar storm occurred in 2023. <\/p>\n<p>           <video playsinline=\"playsinline\" loop=\"\" preload=\"none\" title=\"It\u2019s not just Phoenix, climate change is bringing haboobs to California\" data-video-id=\"00000198-edd7-d373-a39d-efd79b0a0000\">               <\/video>               <img class=\"image\" alt=\"\"   width=\"473\" height=\"840\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1756348750_764_\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>             <\/p>\n<ul data-element=\"action-bar-menu\" class=\"flex gap-2 list-none  absolute w-full h-10 top-0\">\n<li data-element=\"action-bar-share\" class=\"flex  w-full h-10 top-0 lg:items-center lg:justify-center \">\n<p> Share via     Close extra sharing options  <\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Both of these were on the same scale as the one in Arizona this week, but they happened at night and in far less populated areas. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cDust storms are a widespread air quality problem across California, especially in those areas that are dry and getting drier,\u201d William Porter, a professor of atmospheric dynamics and modeling at UC Riverside, said in an email.<\/p>\n<p>The consequences are potentially serious for human health, experts say, because disease- and chemical-laden particles coat human lungs. The particles also cover solar panels and darken mountain snow, making it melt faster. <\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a serious enough phenomenon that UC researchers formed a consortium, <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/ucdust.ucsd.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/492\/2025\/04\/UC-Dust-Report-2025.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">known as UC Dust.<\/a> They estimate that more than 55,000 square miles in the state and 5 million Californians are directly affected by dust storms. Evans said they are difficult to forecast, leaving millions of people vulnerable and exposed. Porter agreed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are surprisingly bad at predicting their magnitudes in advance and we know very little about how those dust particles differ in terms of health impacts and other properties based on where they came from,\u201d he said. Porter, also part of UC Dust, said the team is trying to resolve some of these unknowns for better forecasting and to \u201chelp make Californians more prepared for their arrival, whenever and wherever they occur.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The majority of the storms happen in the Salton Sea and Owens and Central valleys, and the Mojave and Sonoran deserts, but their reach is often much greater. <\/p>\n<p>Samples collected from lake records in the Rocky Mountains show <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/ngeo133\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">dust levels in the last 150 years are six times higher than any period in the last 5,000 years.<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>The dust can also carry toxic material. <\/p>\n<p>Research has long shown that the fungal spores that cause valley fever tend to grow in disturbed soil and dust. Now studies are showing the particles are often laced with industrial and legacy chemicals, such as pesticides, microplastics and DDT, Evan said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are areas that used to be bombing ranges &#8230; so it\u2019s very plausible that there\u2019s arsenic, all kinds of heavy metals, and these legacy pesticides,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re still researching all of this.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Dust can trigger asthma attacks, as well as other respiratory and cardiac issues. A 2019 survey found that <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1660-4601\/16\/20\/3828\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">22% of children have<\/a> asthma in Salton Sea region \u2014 almost triple the <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/acaai.org\/asthma\/asthma-101\/facts-stats\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">national rate of 8.3%.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Dust also decreases visibility on roads and infiltrates engines, motors and other machinery. It can kill crops.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHave you ever seen plants after a dust storm has gone through? They look like they were burned,\u201d said Evan, explaining that dust acts like sandpaper, abrading the leaves and stems of crop plants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For anyone wondering whether intense dust storms, such as the haboob that enveloped Phoenix this week, are possible&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":181319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[102273,102274,285,87861,746,4641,102270,2444,28207,26357,36176,27607,102271,159,6620,67,132,68,14164,102272],"class_list":{"0":"post-181318","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-amato-evan","9":"tag-california-thank","10":"tag-climate-change","11":"tag-dust","12":"tag-environment","13":"tag-expert","14":"tag-intense-dust-storm","15":"tag-los-angeles-times","16":"tag-mile","17":"tag-particle","18":"tag-percent","19":"tag-riverside","20":"tag-salton-sea-area","21":"tag-science","22":"tag-time","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-way","27":"tag-william-porter"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115104079375717403","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}