Intensified dust storm activity and Valley fever infection in the southwestern United States.

ABSTRACT: Climate models have consistently projected a drying trend in the southwestern United States, aiding speculation of increasing dust storms in this region. Long-term climatology is essential to documenting the dust trend and its response to climate variability. We have reconstructed long-term dust climatology in the western United States, based on a comprehensive dust identification method and continuous aerosol observations from the Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) network. We report here direct evidence of rapid intensification of dust storm activity over American deserts in the past decades (1988-2011), in contrast to reported decreasing trends in Asia and Africa. The frequency of windblown dust storms has increased 240% from 1990s to 2000s. This dust tren

SUBMITTER: Tong DQ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6108409 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature