California dust storms are expected to become more common. Some are ‘as big as a city'
In November 2024, powerful gusts whipped across parts of the Central Valley. The winds not only knocked out power, but they also kicked up soil particles, producing a massive dust storm. The extreme weather event dropped visibility to near zero, grinding highway traffic to a halt.
Scientists expect dust storms in California to occur even more often in the future, due to climate change and human activities like construction and agriculture.
'Dust storms can be relatively small, but they can (also) be as big as a city,' said Amato Evan, an atmospheric scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.
Evan directs UC Dust, a center bringing together University of California researchers to develop strategies for dealing with dust storms. UC Dust recently published a report on California dust storms, which highlighted issues with human health and public safety that are exacerbated by these events.
Dust storms occur when high winds sweep across dry landscapes and lift up dust. That's why the deserts of southeastern California experience dust storms most frequently, especially in the spring, summer and fall.
Human activity has also factored into dust storms. Water diversion in the 20th century dried out Owens Lake, which can now produce large amounts of windblown dust. Dust storms frequently occur in the San Joaquin Valley, where agricultural development has produced dust-prone landscapes.
A study published April 26 reported that the majority of dust events from this region come from fallowed agricultural land. After crops that were previously planted dry up, such fallowed land becomes bare, exposed soil, explained study author Adeyemi Adebiyi, an atmospheric scientist at UC Merced. This land is susceptible to wind erosion, which produces more dust, said Adebiyi, who also was a co-author of the UC Dust report.
The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act may have also increased the chances for dust storms. The act, passed in 2014, limits the overdraft of groundwater in order protect groundwater basins in the long term. It has caused farmers to take some fields out of production due to decreased water access.
'That land becomes another new source of dust that could potentially lead to more dust storms in the future,' Adebiyi said.
Scientists expect climate change will make California drier in the coming decades. 'As the planet warms up, arid regions become more arid,' Evan said. That could disrupt the growth of vegetation, like native grasses in the desert, that help stabilize soil.
'We get these drier soils that are less healthy, that are more suitable to being kicked up into the atmosphere,' Evan said. Adebiyi added that it's possible that some places that haven't faced dust storms in the past, like the Sacramento Valley, could see them in the future.
One way to mitigate dust emission would be to replant native vegetation, Evan said, though it's expensive and requires water. The development of dust forecasts for vulnerable places, like the Imperial and Coachella valleys, would also help reduce dust exposure, Evan added.
Previous studies have linked dust storms to asthma, respiratory diseases and even adverse birth outcomes, said Alexandra Heaney, a climate and health epidemiologist at UC San Diego. Heaney is also part of UC Dust and a co-author of the recent report.
Many of those past studies, however, were done in other parts of the world, Heaney said. Dust storms could have different health impacts in California, since populations have different underlying conditions and dust can have distinct compositions. The soil fungus that causes valley fever and can be spread by dust storms, for example, has historically been found mostly in the southwestern United States, including California.
Heaney is beginning a project looking at adverse birth outcomes associated with maternal exposure to dust in California.
'We have to really get a handle on how (dust storms are) impacting the health of our communities here,' Heaney said.
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