What are sandstorms, and how can they be faced and minimized?

Weather of Arabia - Sandstorms are one of the weather phenomena that negatively affect various aspects of public life. Climate changes have recently contributed to changing weather patterns in the form of fluctuation and lack of rain, which led to an increase in drought rates, which contributed to raising the rate of sand storms than usual in areas From the world in general and the Arab world in particular, what is this weather phenomenon, how does it form, and can it be confronted through the following report?

What are sand storms?

It is a concept called the phenomenon of the rise of a large amount of dust in a specific geographical area due to the great influence of the force of the wind, and its height can reach very high levels that may reach about 5-6 kilometers , in addition to sandstorms covering geographical areas extending for hundreds of kilometers.

Sandstorms abound in desert and arid areas with few vegetation cover, which makes the soil loose and winds capable of carrying them. Perhaps the most prominent regions of the world active in sandstorms are the Great African Desert, where the African desert is the largest source of dust globally, followed by the Badia of western Iraq, the Syrian Badia and northern Saudi Arabia.

What are the causes of sandstorms?

The occurrence of sandstorms is not monopolized by a certain season of the year, sandstorms can occur in summer and winter, and perhaps the most prominent causes of sandstorms are:

• Cold air fronts : The passage of cold air fronts over desert areas or near them causes active and sometimes strong winds, and the nature of the air accompanying that air system contributes to the weight of it as it collides with the surface of the earth with force, causing dust particles of different size to fly, causing sandstorms.

• Thermal atmospheric depressions (spring) : frequent in the spring, the formation of thermal air depressions called the five-year depressions arise in the western Sahara desert, west of the Atlas Mountains. sand, moving with it from one country to another.

• Differences in atmospheric pressure values : Differences in atmospheric pressure values, especially in the summer, occur between the atmospheric temperature depressions over the Arabian Peninsula and the air heights over the Mediterranean and North Asia, with fast, active northwest winds accompanied by strong gusts that trigger sandstorms, and this is one of the most The reasons for the occurrence of dust in the Arabian Peninsula.

• Thunderstorms and their downward winds : We came here for a reason somewhat different from the reasons mentioned previously. Thunderstorms contribute to the emergence of rising air currents inside them, but when the rising air cools, it weighs and cannot stay inside the clouds, so it hits the surface of the earth hard and in straight lines, causing it to be sandstorms. Huge thunderstorms surround.

What are the damages of sandstorms?

Sandstorms affect various aspects of public life. Sand storms first affect human health and make many people annually vulnerable to suffocation and later death, and may cause countries to incur hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses by disrupting air, land and sometimes sea navigation, in addition to its negative effects. On plants, especially those that are in the process of growth.

Sandstorms move between countries, but they cannot be stopped!

Sand storms are sometimes transcontinental weather phenomena, and they can affect regionally many countries, one country after another, but they can only be stopped in the absence of the cause of their occurrence. The air until the wind direction changes and the wind carries it away or through rain, then the dust effect ends completely.

But despite our inability to prevent sandstorms from coming to us from other countries, we can confront these weather systems and prevent them from happening locally or reduce their intensity by exploiting the lands by filling them with vegetation and afforestation, especially in the vicinity of cities and border areas.

How does Arab weather contribute to facing dust storms?

In light of international efforts to reduce the negative effects of weather extremes, including an increase in the incidence of sandstorms, experts of the Arab Regional Weather Forecast Center have developed an early warning system based on artificial intelligence concerned with dust storms or dust in general. The end of the dust waves and the expected horizontal visibility, in addition to providing exclusive computer maps to simulate the movement of dust and special recommendations for dealing with dust waves for each sector.

To visit the early warning system from dust waves, click here