Blowing dust is a weather phenomenon common in many locations around the world. During these dust events, particle concentration increases causing visibilities to decrease, sometimes even down to 0, increasing chances of travel accidents and also cause health complications. The Southern Great Plains region of West Texas experiences many dust events annually. In this study, 420 dust events (including widespread dust, blowing dust, and dust storms) were analyzed over 2000–2019. PM_2.5 concentrations during these dust events showed a unimodal diurnal distribution with a peak in the afternoon. Most of the dust events occur during the spring and summer months and La Niña period. Separation of these events based on their meteorological cause (convective and synoptic), found that most (66.4%) were caused by a synoptic disturbance, mainly a cold front. Synoptic dust events occurred all year round, but mainly during spring (March–April), while convective, which accounts for 31% of the dust events, had the highest occurrence during May–July. Most of the synoptic events occurred in the afternoon while convective were in the evening. Meteorological comparison between convective and synoptic showed that synoptic events were associated with lower temperatures and relative humidity values, but with higher wind speeds and gusts. Comparison of PM_2.5 concentrations found a different impact on air quality. Out of all the synoptic dust events, only 12 events exceeded the EPA recommended PM_2.5 daily threshold values, while none of the convective dust events were above that threshold, perhaps due to their short duration (less than an hour).

吹尘是世界许多地方普遍存在的天气现象。在这些尘埃事件期间，颗粒物浓度增加，导致能见度降低，有时甚至降低到0，增加了旅行事故的机会，还引起了健康并发症。西得克萨斯州的南部大平原地区每年经历许多尘埃事件。在这项研究中，对2000年至2019年期间的420起沙尘事件（包括广泛的沙尘，吹尘和沙尘暴）进行了分析。下午_2.5在这些尘埃事件中的浓度显示出单峰的昼夜分布，并在下午达到峰值。大多数粉尘事件发生在春季和夏季以及拉尼娜时期。根据气象原因（对流和天气变化）对这些事件进行分离，发现大多数（66.4％）是由天气变化引起的，主要是冷锋。天气尘埃事件全年发生，但主要发生在春季（3月至4月），而占尘埃事件31％的对流活动在5月至7月期间发生率最高。大部分天气事件发生在下午，而对流活动则发生在晚上。对流和天气的气象比较表明，天气事件与较低的温度和相对湿度有关，但与较高的风速和阵风有关。_2.5浓度对空气质量有不同的影响。在所有天气性扬尘事件中，仅12个事件超过了EPA建议的PM _2.5每日阈值，而对流性灰尘事件均未超过该阈值，这可能是由于持续时间短（不到一个小时）。