Dust storms no longer take people by surprise. In fact, they have become common. Yet, they still affect the environment negatively, bring traffic to a stop, cause financial losses and affect people with asthma and respiratory problems, Al-Riyadh newspaper reported.
“The climate in the Kingdom is dry with little rain,” said Dr. Abdullah Al-Musnad, associate professor in geography at Al-Qassim University. “As a country, it is covered with a vast area of sand, which accounts for 800,000 square kilometers of the total area. The surface soil is dry and there is nothing to break the wind, especially trees,” he added.
Sandstorms increase in April and May due to low pressure in the north of the country. These low pressures or depressions are accompanied with cold fronts that move southeast and cause sandstorms. “How strong a storm is depends on the low pressure itself and how it affects the cold front. Dust particles start moving when the horizontal wind speed reaches 20 kilometers per hour. In fact, most dust storms start when the speed exceeds 35 kilometers per hour,” Al-Musnad said.
The geography professor carried out a study on sandstorms in Saudi Arabia over the past 40 years. He found that Al-Ahsa has around 89 days of dust storms a year, Al-Qaysoomah 70 days, Hafr Al-Batin 63, Rafha 66 and Riyadh 55.
Another cause behind the frequency of dust storms in the Kingdom can be attributed to the ongoing development that ignores the local ecosystem, said Al-Musnad. Human activities disintegrate soil components and render it unsuitable for planting trees. He called on all countries in the Middle East to work together to rehabilitate the region and plant millions of trees in the deserts.
Dr. Mansour Al-Mazrouee, director at the Al-Tamayoz Center for Climate Change Research, said the Kingdom has had many dust and sand storms over the past few years which have resulted in low visibility and negatively impacted the economy and people's health. “Meteorology researchers have been working hard and nonstop to find out the causes of dust storms and how to warn the public and concerned bodies against them well before they hit so that everyone can take precautionary measures,” said Al-Mazrouee.
The center currently uses a supercomputer that can simulate dust storms and make daily and monthly forecasts as well as send warnings to the public and concerned authorities, he said.
Dr. Nasser Sarhan, assistant professor of meteorology at King Faisal Air Force College, said sandstorms are common in the Kingdom, given its vast deserts. “We have a dry surface due to slight rain. Besides, the change of temperature in the central and northern areas during the winter and spring produces dust storms in these areas,” he explained.
As a precautionary measure, he suggested that the hard-hit areas should find a solution to the dry surface and put an end to desertification and tree cutting. He added that some land could be turned into green areas to act as windbreaks.
Dr. Ibrahim Al-Ahaidib, professor of environmental geography at Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University, said winds and storms originate in the central areas of Asia, Iraq, Jordan, and nearby countries and then enter the Kingdom's atmosphere. Due to surface dryness, winds can carry a large amount of sand and dust. Sometimes, dust storms and sandstorms originate in the Sinai Desert and North Africa, which are desert areas and do not have a lot of plants. These storms cannot be prevented, but their effects can be mitigated.
