GOBI DUST STORMS

massive sand storm swept through a village next to Gobi desert; Sources: Mail online, Researchgate

The Gobi region of Mongolia and China, northern China, including Beijing, and western China are struck with fierce sand storms and dust storms in late winter and early spring. The winds generally blow from west to east and kick up tens of millions of tons of top soil each day. The storms are produced by atmospheric low pressure cells that develop over Mongolia and create windy conditions in the Taklamakan and Gobi deserts. The storms are worse when the climate is hot and dry. In 2003, the storms were less severe than usual. This was attributed mainly to more rain in the Gobi and the failure of atmospheric low pressure cells to develop over Mongolia.

Springtime weather in Asia produces intense wind storm events that can pass over the Gobi Desert along the northern China and Mongolia border and other parts of desert China. These winds are capable of generating huge yellow clouds of suspended dust which based on the direction of the prevailing wind can be sent out to sea. Advances in satellite imagery allow the tracking and documentation of these huge Asian aerosol clouds. [Source: lakepowell.net/asiandust]

The yellow dust kicked up these storms refers not so much to the color of the dust while it is in the air but more to the film of dust left on cars, windows and other surfaces by the winds. The air and skies are usually a kind of brownish gray. Sometimes the sand mixes with snow and causes yellow snow.

Dust and sand levels are exacerbated by drought and desertificaton. Drought robs the soil of moisture, making it easier for the soil to be picked up the wind. Drought in the winter is particularly damaging because it dries the soil before the big winds arrive in late winter and early spring. In recent years, the dust storms have been occurring earlier, with greater frequency, lasting longer, and carrying stronger winds and more dust. One study found severe storms have increased from five in the 1950s to eight in the 1960s, 13 in the 1970s, 14 in the 1980s and 23 in the 1990s. Desertification in western China and Mongolian steppes has made sandstorms worse in recent years. Global warming is blamed for producing milder and dryer winters that loosen the soils which are easily lifted by the spring winds.

Impact of Gobi Dust Storms on Humans

Dust storms in the Gobi Desert on January 28, 2018 viewed with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite; this true-color image shows massive clouds of light orange sand blowing across the Gobi Desert — the world’s most prolific dust-producing regions; The landscape varies from grassy plain, to seas of sand, to bare rock; Some of the areas that produce the most dust include sand seas and impermanent lakes which occur along the China-Mongolia border

The Gobi region, Northern China, including Beijing, and western China are struck with fierce sand storms and dust storms in late winter and early spring. The winds generally blow from west to east and kick up tens of millions of tons of top soil each day. The storms are produced by atmospheric low pressure cells that develop over Mongolia and create windy conditions in the Taklamakan and Gobi deserts. The storms are worse when the climate is hot and dry. In 2003, the storms were less severe than usual. This was attributed mainly to more rain in the Gobi and the failure of atmospheric low pressure cells to develop over Mongolia.

Gobi Dust Storms in Beijing

Beijing has always been violently invaded and attacked by air- borne sand and dust, so whenever a windstorm occurs sand and dust fill the sky. There are times when it continues for several days and the ground is then completely covered with a thick layer of sand. Under such weather conditions people have to remain indoors as much as possible, and if you risk going outdoors you have to take care not to be hit by the trees, the store signs, etc. that are being blown down by the wind, and moreover you have to wear a protective mask or veil. Since the sand can readily enter the eyes and mouth, the respiratory systems and eyes of many people are infected in this manner. In addition to the fact that sandstorms cause such inconvenience in people’s lives, they also influence agricultural production, transportation and shipping, and other industries, and cause serious economic damage thereby.

Gobi storm on June 2, 2020 taken from the Himawari-8 satellite;
a swirling low pressure storm system kick up dust and sand
(shown above as bright pink) Storms with unusual ferocity have hit Beijing. Sand storms reduce visibility to less than one kilometer. The dust and sand in the air damages the lungs and irritates the eyes. Homeowners have to work to keep the dust out of their homes. Fierce sand storms, propelled by powerful winds, in Xinjiang have destroyed houses and cracked double-gazed windows. Not far from the Beijing villages are being gobbled up by moving sand dunes.

The storms become particularly dangerous when they move east and pick up industrial pollutants such as arsenic and dioxins and heavy metals such as copper, cadmium and lead when they pass over China’s heavily industrialized northeast and dumps these pollutants further west, sometimes in Korea and Japan, and even the U.S.

Damaging Gobi Dust and Sand Storms

Strong spring weather systems are capable of generating wind speeds of 60 mph which can last for days across the high steppe desert country of Mongolia and western China. Part of the reason these dust storms are so severe, is that the soil is so loose and fine. Dust and sand storms in the Yellow River valley and the Gobi desert are so strong that planes can't fly and transportation is brought to halt. Yurts get knocked over. People stay indoors and stuff rags under their doors to keep dust and sand from blowing in. People that go outside are forced to wear surgical masks to keep from choking on the yellow dust and sand. A storm in 1998 was blamed for 12 deaths, and the storms appear to be increasing in frequency. In China, storms with fine wind blown dust are called "dust floatings".

On his experience in Taklamakan desert in 1895, the Swedish explorer Sven Hedin wrote: “Crossing a dead-flat plain of yellow-grey dust—nothing but dust, so fine that it blew like powder at every breath of the wind, and so soft and deep that driving over it was like an adventure on a feather-bed. The wheels of their wagons were almost sucked into it, the horses labored endlessly; the men, walking alongside, saw their feet sink into the dust ankle-deep with every step. The tracks they left behind were nothing but lines of dimples in the dust. The dust got into everything, the men and horses and every wagon became plastered with greyish-yellow dust."

Gobi dust storm in Beijing

A dust storm in April 2006 dumped an estimated 330,000 tons of yellow sand on Beijing, making parts of the city look like a desert. The storm was especially damaging because the grains of sand from the Gobi Desert were larger than usual and winds were unusually strong. The storm turned the skies of Beijing brownish yellow; left a thick covering of sand on homes, streets and cars; filled hospitals with people with respiratory diseases; and prompted authorities to raise dust and pollution warnings to their highest level and advised people to either wear face masks or stay indoors. The same storm kicked up high winds across the Gobi Desert that created huge dust clouds, toppled houses, buried railroads and roads and killed one person. A train in a remote stretch of desert had it windows broken by sand-laden winds.

A warning for the storm issued for a large swath of China and Mongolia went: “We advise friends in these areas to reduce their outdoor activities as much as possible. When you go out, please take measures to protect against the sand such as wearing cotton clothes, masks and glasses to avoid the sand harming your eyes and respiratory system."

Human Activity and Gobi Dust Storms

A report by the Chinese Academy of Science has indicated that this sand comes from the degraded pastureland and dry land of the area around the deserts of Inner Mongolia. Records show that during the 17th century there were from 0.3 to 1.0 sandstorms in Inner Mongolia per year, but by 1990 the annual rate of occurrence had risen to 3.0 to 5.0 times per year. At the same time, the rate of occurrence of sandstorms in Beijing has also increased, and the number of violent sandstorms that occurred this spring in Beijing was more than three times the average for the same period in the 1990s. Some have called the sandstorm that occurred on April 10, 2000 the most serious such storm in 10 years. Other than natural factors like aridity being the cause creating such conditions, the fact that China’s ecological environment has suffered damage is also a major source of this calamity. [Source: October 2000 Report - Chinese Monthly /*]

Owing to the development of agriculture, the area of land adversely affected by sand has gradually increased, and during the 1950s and 1960s the land affected by sand expanded on average by 1,600 square kilometers per year. By the 1990s, the area by which this land was expanding had reached 2,500 square kilometers per year. This kind of situation where the land is adversely affected by sand is particularly serious in many regions upwind from Beijing. Fengning City in Hebei Province and Duolun City in Inner Mongolia lie to the north of Beijing, and in the last 50 years the population of these two cities has grown by a factor of 2 to 3 times. In order to obtain the resources needed to sustain their livelihood, the inhabitants have engaged in excessive cultivation of the land, pasturage of animals and tree-cutting, with the result that vegetation and the topsoil have sustained damage, and the sand layer below the earth is now exposed on the ground and the ground is rapidly being subjected to the spread of sand. /*\

China has already noticed this problem, and has adopted remedial measures. Currently there have been measures taken in response such as the withdrawal of land from cultivation and pasturage and its return to forestland and grassland in regions like Hebei Province and Inner Mongolia. The other day the Chinese government announced that it would invest more than 600,000,000 renminbi [TN: Chinese currency, aka yuan] to control Beijing’s sandstorms in the coming decade. Only by decreasing the damage caused by man and restoring the natural environment will it be possible to hold in check effectively the sources of the sand and dust and to improve the problem fundamentally. /*\

Global Impact of Gobi Dust Storms

Yellow dust from the Gobi region and north-central China blows into Korea and Japan and sometimes makes its way across the Pacific to North America. So much of China's and Mongolia’s topsoil blows away that scientists at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii can detect the dust within a matter of days after the spring winds starts. One storm in 2001 "blanketed areas from Canada to Arizona with a layer of dust."

Wind blown dust originating from the arid deserts of Mongolia and China is a well-known springtime meteorological phenomenon throughout East Asia. In fact, "yellow sand" meteorological conditions are sufficiently common to have acquired local names: Huangsha in China, Whangsa in Korea, and Kosa in Japan. [Source: lakepowell.net/asiandust]

Suspended clouds of Asian dust can move across the Pacific in elevated layers (3-11 km agl) and can reach the U.S. in as little as 4-6 days. The dust clouds finally dissipate when the particles are removed from the atmosphere by dry and wet removal processes. Gravitational settling of large particles (more than 10 m m) occurs near the source within the first day of transport. Wet removal occurs sporadically throughout the 5-10 day lifetime of the remaining smaller size dust particles.

Recent studies have revealed that yellow sand is not entirely a bad thing and can be a good thing. It can neutralize acid rain, and has beneficial affect on the marine environment. Yellow sand contain highly-alkaline calcium carbonate, which neutralizes acid and absorbs acid-rain-producing sulfur dioxide.

Dust from large deserts that is transported in this manner can be a vital nutrient source for both the oceans and terrestrial ecosystems. When it falls over the sea it is consumed by plankton which in turn provide food for fish. The sand is also rich in phosphorus and iron which can help fertilize the soil. Iron in the minerals composing this desert can be be a vital nutrient in oceanic regions that are deficient in iron. Furthermore, research has shown that the canopy (top layers) of much of the Central and South America rain forest derives much of its nutrient supply from dust that is transported over the Atlantic from the Sahara Desert in northern Africa.

Gobi Dust Storms in Korea and Japan

Yellow sand from huge springtime storms in Gobi region often hit Korea and Japan in March or April. The chocking clouds — which are like gritty fast-moving fogs and can be seen as yellow blobs from weather satellites — were particularly bad in 2000, 2001 and especially 2002. After a wicked dust storm hit Seoul in March 2002, schools were closed; clinics were filled with people with respiratory problems; drugs stores ran out of cough medicine and face masks; and nonsmokers felt like smokers.

The yellow sand causes respiratory problems in northern China and South Korea and tinges laundry yellow. During the storms the amount of particulate matter in the air can increase 30 times. One South Korean weather service employee told the New York Times, “There is no way for us to deter this. All we can do is try to forecast the yellow dust storms as early as possible, but with the current technology we can only detect it one day ahead of time at best.” A Korean research report described the fallout from 2001 "yellow dust" storm as containing ed 16 times more "metallic substances" than your ordinary dust storm, contributing to respiratory illnesses.

In Japan, the storms are more of a nuisance than a health hazard. During particularly bad ones, the air is gritty and gray and cars are covered by a yellow film and the percentage of faulty products produced by precision machinery factories increases, but people generally don't have respiratory problems.

Gobi Dust Reaches Arizona

Sometimes Gobi dust storms are so immense that they can complete a 5-7 day journey across the Pacific Ocean to impact North America. These dramatic pollution events can engulf the entire Great Basin of the western U.S. in a thick layer of haze that can reduced direct solar radiation, double the diffused radiation and have a dramatic impact on the visibility in th western United States. Visibility degradation from Asian dust cloud events can range from a whitish discoloration of the normally blue sky to a thick haze that reduces visibility to 30 miles or less. These dust clouds can contribute as much as 40 μg/m3 of fine particulate to existing background levels. [Source: lakepowell.net/asiandust]

Lee Dye of ABC News wrote: In April 2001, “Paul Ostapuk thought a band of dark air extending across the western horizon looked a bit odd as his plane descended into Page, Ariz...There had been no suggestion of an approaching storm in the weather report, so Ostapuk grew increasingly curious about the enormous cloud. "It was pretty dramatic," says Ostapuk, a meteorologist and air quality specialist. The cloud, which he saw for the first time at around 4:30 p.m. on April 12, appeared to undulate, and within a couple of hours had spread across the entire sky. [Source: Lee Dye, ABC News, April 26, 2001 ^^]

“The air was so thick with tiny particulates that it seemed as though the sun was setting prematurely, and astronomers at the Lowell Observatory in nearby Flagstaff would later report seeing rings around the sun, a clear indication that this was no ordinary cloud. "My first impression was that there had been a volcanic eruption," says Ostapuk, but a quick review of news reports and other resources ruled that out. ^^

“Ostapuk turned to a NASA Web site with rich data available from a satellite launched less than five years ago. The Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) provides continuous mapping of ozone and other aerosols, such as sulfur dioxide from volcanic eruptions, around the world. He then backtracked the cloud, checking where it had been on each previous day. And finally it hit him. It was clear that the dust he saw descending on Page had come from a massive storm so far away that it seems unthinkable it would have had such a dramatic impact in the small Arizona town. The storm had occurred in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia and China. ^^

“The dust had been carried to high altitude by winds so fierce that airports had to be closed, and then transported 7,000 miles across the Gulf of Alaska, down through British Columbia and over the vast expanse of open land in this country known as the Colorado Plateau. A high pressure system trapped it in the area, causing some of the particulates to drop down to the ground and turning the sky yellow. It had taken six days for the gunk to move from Mongolia to Arizona, and it came from what Chinese officials were already calling the worst sand storm of the spring season. Winds had swept across lands that had been laid bare by overgrazing, kicking up enough dust to reduce visibility to near zero and making even ground transportation nearly impossible.” In the U.S. the dark cloud eventually moved on, according to NOAA. By April 19, it had reached the East Coast, stretching from Hudson Bay to Northern Florida, and then it moved on out to sea.” ^^

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center said: ,"The particulates in the dust clouds that reduce visibility and cause respiratory problems have not beenmeasured in such high volume since Mt. St. Helens erupted, and even then, the particulates did not reach the ground as they are in this case." According to Discovery Channel Earth Alert,"So thick was the dust over Easter weekend that visitors to western U.S. national parks have reportedly been asking rangers where the "fire" is. Normally only smoke from major fires causes such haze."

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Library of Congress, CIA World Factbook, Encyclopedia.com, National Geographic, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, U.S. government Live Science, The Conversation, The New Yorker, Time, BBC, CNN, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Google AI, Wikipedia, The Guardian and various websites, books and other publications.

Last updated June 2026