Analyzing two decades of dust events on the Southern Great Plains region of West Texas

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apr.2021.101091Get rights and content

Highlights

  • 420 dust events were observed over 20 years.

  • PM2.5 concentrations during dust events had a unimodal diurnal distribution.

  • Most dust events formed due to synoptic disturbance.

  • Synoptic and convective dust events have different meteorological measurements.

  • Synoptic and convective dust events have a different impact on air quality.

Abstract

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. PM2.5 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 PM2.5 concentrations found a different impact on air quality. Out of all the synoptic dust events, only 12 events exceeded the EPA recommended PM2.5 daily threshold values, while none of the convective dust events were above that threshold, perhaps due to their short duration (less than an hour).

Introduction

Dust storms occur when strong winds pick up loose dust particles and other materials and blow them up to thousands of kilometers away from the source (Goudie, 2014; Middleton, 2017). According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Dust Storm (DS) is defined as an assortment of small particles that can be lifted into the air by strong wind and reduces the visibility to less than 1 km (UNEP, 2016; WMO , 2019). There are different intensity levels for dust storms based on the horizontal visibility levels, for example in floating or widespread Dust (DU), which is the weakest type of dust storm events, visibility is lower than 10 km, for blowing dust event (BLDU) the visibility range between 1 km and 10 km, for DS visibility range from 0.5 to 1 km while in severe or intense DS the visibility will be < 0.5 km (National Weather Bureau of China, 1979).

Dust events are common in arid and semi-arid environments but can sometimes occur in other environments (Goudie and Middleton, 2006; Goudie, 2014). Multiple factors contribute to the initiation of dust events including soil moisture, vegetation cover, lack of precipitation, and wind. Moist dust particles adhere to each other, making it hard for winds to pick up dust particles. Dry particles are loose and easier to be lifted by winds (Stout, 2001). Dust events have been found to correlate with long-term drought conditions, as the dry soil allows high winds to pick up the loose particles, initiating a dust event (Arcusa et al., 2020; Javadian et al., 2019).

Vegetation cover is another important contributing factor for dust initiation (Gillete, 1999). According to Skidmore (1986), vegetation cover is considered as the “cardinal rule” which can impact wind erosion and generation of blowing dust. Plants that are small and distanced from each other are ideal for the initiation of blowing dust, as space reduces the amount of wind friction, allowing strong winds to reach the surface without interference and lift the dust particles. Engelstaedter et al. (2003) found higher dust emissions in areas associated with bare ground. Similarly, Stout (2001) also found more dust events after harvesting of crop fields when the surface cover was at a minimum.

Out of the many contributing elements for dust initiation, strong winds are the most significant factor (Knippertz and Stuut, 2004). Strong winds are crucial for lifting dust particles into the air. Various studies found different wind speed thresholds, from both surface and 10 m measurements, for lifting particles and the initiation of dust events. In Israel, Krasnov et al. (2016) found daily wind speeds in the means of 2.7–3.9 m s−1 on dusty days. Higher wind speeds (10 m s−1 to 30 m s−1) were found for the Great Basin region in the United States (Hahnenberger and Nicoll, 2012). In the Southern High Plains, Lee et al. (1993) found that winds > 6 m s−1 are capable of initiating a dust event. Intensive dust events in this area can have wind speeds as high as 30 m s−1 (Idso, 1976) similar to those found in the Great Basin region.

Two different types of meteorological disturbances can cause an increase in winds associated with dust formation, synoptic and convective. A synoptic disturbance is an upper-level disturbance that occurs a few hundred kilometers above the surface (AMS American Meteorological Society, 2012a). It includes warm and cold fronts, low and high-pressure systems, troughs, and ridges. These upper-level systems can tighten the pressure gradient resulting in an increase in wind speed (Hahnenberger and Nicoll, 2012). Convective disturbances are caused by thunderstorms including thunderstorm outflow boundaries and thunderstorm downbursts, in some cases creating a wall of dust named Haboobs, which is another name for dust storms in Sudan (WMO , 2019). Outflow boundaries are a boundary of a cool air mass that forms from the thunderstorm (AMS American Meteorological Society, 2012b), while downbursts are a collapsed column of air from the storm clouds that spread out in all directions upon hitting the surface (Idso, 1976).

Dust events are one of the most important natural contributors to atmospheric particulate matter (PM) (Shahsavani et al., 2012b). The presence of these particles impacts solar radiation by absorbing and scattering the sun's radiation (Haywood et al., 2003), cloud formation (Bangert et al., 2012; Ardon-Dryer and Levin, 2014), economy (Tozer and Leys, 2013), human well-being and health (Goudie, 2014; Ardon-Dryer et al., 2020). During dust events, the concentration of particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5 -particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter <10 μm and <2.5 μm, respectively), can exceed the health-recommended daily threshold values of the World Health Organization (WHO, daily threshold of 50 μg m−3 for PM10 and 25 μg m−3 for PM2.5; WHO , 2006) and/or Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, daily threshold of 150 μg m−3 for PM10 and 35 μg m−3 for PM2.5; EPA , 2016).

High PM concentrations were reported during dust events around the world. In Israel, Ardon-Dryer and Levin (2014) reported on dust days PM2.5 daily values from 44 ± 22 μg m−3 up to 220 ± 153 μg m−3. In Iran, Shahsavani et al. (2012) measured PM2.5 daily values of 69.5 ± 83.2 μg m−3. Hourly PM2.5 concentrations during a dust event in India reached values of 550 μg m−3 (Chakravarty et al., 2021). In the southern High Plains, Kelley et al. (2020) reported on PM2.5 hourly concentrations of 486 μg m−3, with a daily value of 77 μg m−3. This hourly value was lower than the PM2.5 hourly peak concentration that was measured in Arizona (907 μg m³; Raman et al., 2014). But much higher than those measured in the Great Basin region, when PM2.5 daily value was 12.5 μg m−3, and the hourly maximum was 55.7 μg m−3 (Hahnenberger and Nicoll, 2012), or than those measured in California, when PM2.5 hourly peak reached 60 μg m−3 (Freedman et al., 2020).

Most health problems attributed to dust events are due to the increase of dust particles as well as their composition and size. Large particles, such as PM10, generally settle in the upper portion of the respiratory system when inhaled, while smaller particles, such as PM2.5, can proceed to the lungs (Goudie, 2014; Schweitzer et al., 2018). In the lungs, these particles can cause respiratory and cardiovascular problems and stroke (Goudarzi et al., 2017; Schweitzer et al., 2018). Dust particles can irritate the respiratory system resulting in difficulty breathing causing bronchitis and asthma attacks (Soy et al., 2016; Trianti et al., 2017; Toure et al., 2019). In addition to the respiratory problems, exposure to dust during pregnancy was found to increase the probability of low birth weight, premature birth, as well to toxemia of pregnancy (Dastoorpoor et al., 2018; Jones, 2020; Bogan et al., 2021). In some cases, exposure to dust particles can even cause mortality (Díaz et al., 2017; Wang et al., 2020). Dust events also carry different types of particles besides dust including bacteria, pathogens, viruses, pollen (Leski et al., 2011; Goudie, 2014; Elmassry et al., 2020). These particles have been found to cause a variety of health conditions including Influenza A virus (Schweitzer et al., 2018), meningitis (Diokhane et al., 2016), as well causing the infectious disease valley fever (coccidioidomycosis) due to the presence of the spores Coccidioides immitis or C. posadasii (Middleton, 2020), which are common in south west United States mainly in Arizona (Tong et al., 2017).

Additional hazards caused by dust events are related to low visibility. In extreme cases, visibilities can drop to 0. Lower visibilities during dust events increase the chance of traffic accidents (Li et al., 2018; Bhattachan et al., 2019), and can also disrupt aviation traffic (AlKheder and AlKandari, 2020). Dust events can also affect the economy by impacting agriculture and livestock productivity. Dust particles can cause abrasions and damage to crops, which could result in significant damage, and even loss of crops (Middleton, 2019a; Abdullaev and Sokolik, 2020). Livestock will also be impacted by dust events. Generally, livestock does not have sufficient shelter; therefore, exposure to dust particles during dust events could cause health complications in livestock including respiratory issues and suffocation (Mu et al., 2013). Dust events were also found to have an economic impact on the Oil and Gas Industry in Kuwait (Al-Hemoud et al., 2019).

All of the aforementioned issues are common in many regions around the world due to the frequency of different dust events worldwide. Among the various regions common to dust events, North Africa (Sahara region) is the largest contributor of dust particles to the atmosphere, with half of the global dust emissions, are produced from this region (Goudie, 2014); Asia is responsible for 20% of the global emissions from the Gobi, the Taklamakan, and Badain Juran Deserts (Griffin and Kellogg, 2004; Goudie, 2014). Dust particles can travel great distances from these sources. For example, dust particles from the Sahara have been found in different regions in Europe (Gama et al., 2020; Calidonna et al., 2020; Kokkalis et al., 2021), the Mediterranean (Ganor et al., 2010; Ardon-Dryer and Levin, 2014), and the Caribbean, Mexico and the United States regions (Creamean et al., 2013; Prospero and Mayol-Bracero, 2013; Kandler et al., 2018; Ramírez-Romero et al., 2021).

Other locations contributing to atmospheric dust are in the United States. Unlike Africa and Asia, it contributes only 5% of the global dust emissions (Miller et al., 2004). Dust events in the United States are formed in arid and semi-arid environments in the western portion of the country (Goudie, 2014). The most notable location is Arizona, which experiences a substantial amount of dust events annually due to the proximity of the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts. The Great Basin and the Great Plains, including locations such as Utah (Hahnenberger and Nicoll, 2012), Oklahoma (Schult and Meisner, 2009), and parts of West Texas (Novlan et al., 2007) also experience many dust events. The Great Plains was strongly impacted by dust events during the Dust Bowl period which occurred in the 1930s. During these years an extended drought together with poor land management and strong winds created many strong dust events causing land destruction, which had profound effects on human health and welfare, forcing million farmers to relocate to other regions (Lee and Gill, 2015; Sarafoglou et al., 2016; Alexander et al., 2018). While many soil conversation measures were implemented after the Dust Bowl (Lee and Gill, 2015) to make sure another Dust Bowl does not occur again, different studies indicated that an increase of dust events have been observed in the last decade, in many locations in the United States mainly in the southeastern and central regions (Hand et al., 2016; Tong et al., 2017). Climate models projected that climate change will increase the frequency of dust events in these regions (Pu and Ginoux, 2017; Achakulwisut et al., 2018; Brey et al., 2020).

This study focuses on dust events that occurred within the last 20 years, 2000 to 2019, in the Southern Great Plains region in one site of West Texas. Dust events were analyzed based on temporal, meteorological, and drought variations as well as the impact of El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Analyses of their impact on air quality based on PM2.5 measurements were performed. Also, an analysis of dust events based on different meteorological causes as synoptic and convective, with their different features and impact on air quality will be presented.

Section snippets

Research area

The research was performed in Lubbock which is located in the Texas Panhandle on the Southern High Plains Plateau, in a semi-arid environment with less than normal average annual rainfall amounts. The average annual rainfall for this area from 2000 to 2019 was 463 mm, while the average in the United States for the same period was 789 mm (Jaganmohan, 2021). Lubbock is located on a plateau; the terrain is flat, and vegetation is small and sparse. Flatland and little to no vegetation offer no

Results and discussion

A total of 432 days with 3470 observations had weather code reports to reflect dust events (DU, DS, and BLDU). We notice that 344 observations of BLDU had visibility >10 km (ranging from 11.3 to 16.1 km). As mentioned above, it is recommended that the observer will report a BLDU code if dust is observed in the atmosphere event when visibility is > 10 km, but not all the observers report it (Greer C, a senior weather observer at the Lubbock ASOS, personal communication, 2021). Some of these high

Conclusions

This study analyzed 420 dust events in the Southern Great Plains region of West Texas over 20 years. Some years experienced numerous dust events (up to 48 days) while others experienced only a few. No annual trends were observed but the high frequency of dust events was correlated with low annual precipitation, high drought, and La Niña events.

Most of the dust events occurred in spring (March to June) while fall had the lowest number of dust events. Dust in this region also impact the PM2.5

Authors’ contributions

Mary Kelley: Data curation; Formal analysis; Investigation; Methodology; Writing – original draft; Writing – review & editing. Karin Ardon-Dryer: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Supervision; Validation; Visualization; Roles/Writing – original draft; Writing – review & editing.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgments

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. The authors would like to thank Texas Tech University for the support of Marry Kelley scholarship.

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