Record-breaking dusty days in El Paso raise health concerns

Yahoo

13-05-2025

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — A recent study published by UTEP professors shows El Paso has surpassed the yearly average for dusty days in 2025.
According to data compiled by Thomas Gill, co-author of the study and professor of Earth environmental and resource sciences at UTEP, El Paso experiences around 22 dusty days throughout the year.
'As of May 12, we have actually had 30 days so far this year with blowing dust and that's already over the annual average, which is about 22 or 23. When the dust gets so thick that the visibility gets down to half a mile or less, brownout conditions, you can only see a few blocks or less, that's an official dust storm, and so far this year we have actually had 10 days with full dust storm conditions, and the last time that we had that many days, with complete dust storm conditions, the absolute brownouts was back in the Dust Bowl in 1936,' Gill said.
The National Weather Service said the recent wind events and dust storms are due to a combination of factors.
'What's causing the amount of dust that we've had over the last of this year is where we have exceptional drought conditions that's persisted in the last couple of years with low rainfall, and higher amount of winds. It's just stirring up dust washes,' said Charley Kelly, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Santa Teresa.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, most of southwest Texas is under a drought. Parts of El Paso are in either an extreme or exceptional drought which are considered the most severe categories.
With the dry conditions, warmer temperatures and blowing winds come several threats which include heightened fire dangers and dangerous driving conditions, but Gill says people also need to consider how inhaling the dust and fine particles also impacts health.
'There are a lot of negative health effects from breathing the dust, from respiratory conditions, especially asthma and other respiratory conditions to even cardiovascular and circulatory diseases, can be exacerbated or worsened or maybe triggered by breathing dust, to diseases that we weren't as aware of years ago, like something called valley fever, which is caused by a fungus that lives in the soil and has been an under-recognized disease that is now increasing,' Gill said.
According to the CDC, valley fever is a fungal lung infection that causes symptoms of pneumonia that can last a few weeks to a few months.
Symptoms include:
Fatigue
Cough
Fever and headache
Shortness of breath
Night sweats
Muscle aches or joint pain
Rash on upper body or legs
Kelly said the strong winds will begin to tail off near the end of May, with little to no chance of dust storms as we enter summer. Whether or not the Borderland will see a similar dusty spring in 2026 depends on this year's monsoon season.
At this time, the seasonal precipitation outlook produced by the National Oceanic and Administration (NOAA) shows El Paso has equal chances for precipitation which means well above, well below, or near normal rainfall.
'We've had a couple of years of really dry ones, so it's possible that we may end up getting lucky enough to get into a wet season if we do a true monsoon season and that would definitely help us settle the dust,' Kelly said.
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