Climatology, trend analysis and prediction of sandstorms and their associated dustfall in China

Abstract

Based on statistical data about Sand and Dust Storms (SDS) and their associated dustfall, features of temporal and spatial distribution were studied first in this article. SDS and associated dustfalls occurred most often in northern China, especially northwestern China. However, in the last two years, they have a tendency to occur on the central and western parts of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. As a result, Beijing is now among the impact areas, and the Chinese government is paying greater attention to the matter. The changing trends of SDS and associated dustfalls were subsequently analyzed. Occurrences were seen to be decreasing with the feature of fluctuation during the period of 1954-2001, but they have slightly increased since 2000. Also, climate factors related to SDS and associated dustfalls were discussed. Finally, it was recommended that methods to predict SDS in China be further studied in the future. © 2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers.