Impressive black clouds of dust rise on the horizon and sweep over the city. The streets darken in a few seconds, gusts reach 130 km/h and tear off shops, roofs and balconies. The images of the sandstorm that hit the city of Harbin, 6 million inhabitants, in northeast China at the end of May 2026, are impressive. A few days earlier, on the other side of the country, a thick veil of pink-orange sand had covered Wanfo Palace, forcing tourists to cover their faces to continue breathing normally.
While dust and sand storms are common in China in spring, they have been increasing in intensity and extent in recent years. According to a report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), published Thursday July 9, these storms reached “record levels” in 2025. In China alone, 14 episodes were observed that year, around 40% more than the average of the last thirty years. But this phenomenon does not only concern the Middle Kingdom.
The guilty drought
Sandstorms occur near deserts or bare (sparsely vegetated) soils. The wind lifts large quantities of sand grains and spreads them nearby. In dust storms, the wind carries much finer particles several kilometers in altitude and over hundreds or even thousands of kilometers, thus affecting much more distant areas.
These two phenomena, which today concern more than 150 countries, are largely natural, but are worsened by human activity and global warming, according to the WMO. The World Health Organization confirms this, considering that nearly 25% of dust emissions are linked to human activities, including land degradation, deforestation and unsustainable management of soil and water.
Drought, desertification and the loss of vegetation favor this type of storm, making soils more vulnerable and leaving more land bare. Result: when violent winds occur, they raise sand and dust more easily.
“Exceptionally frequent, intense and lasting” storms
The dust storm in Harbin this year, caused by winds from the deserts of Mongolia, is reminiscent of the very large storm of April 11-13, 2025 in China, triggered by a powerful Mongolian cyclone. According to the WMO, it was “the most serious episode recorded in the country in ten years in terms of its intensity, geographical extent and duration”. The winds had raised immense quantities of dust in the Gobi Desert, transporting it to northern China (the provinces of Beijing, Tebei and Tianjin) but also the center and south of the country, which is unusual.
Dust storms were also “exceptionally frequent, intense and long-lasting” in the desert region located on the border between Mexico and the United States, WMO said. The city of El Paso, Texas, recorded 50 days of dusty events in 2025, more than double the annual average.
Closed schools and health concerns
North Africa and the Middle East are also among the most affected regions. In December 2025, an exceptional dust storm swept across Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar and the Arabian Peninsula, causing flight cancellations and school closures. Earlier this year, in mid-April, Iraqi authorities reported significant damage following another storm. Numerous pileups took place due to the lack of visibility during the episode and more than 3,700 people, suffering from breathing difficulties, were hospitalized.
According to estimates from the Iraqi Ministry of the Environment, twenty years ago, Iraq had around 243 dusty days per year, compared to 272 today and should experience around 300 by 2050 if nothing is done to stem the phenomenon. So the country is looking for solutions: spreading layers of wet clay on the dunes, digging canals to transform arid land into agricultural areas…
Chinese engineers are developing straw checkerboard sand barriers, steel and concrete anti-sand fences and other techniques to fix the dunes. Large solar panel farms, some of which are attached vertically, can also serve as windbreaks.
But blocking dunes and sand at desert borders doesn’t stop dust from rising elsewhere in arid areas. The fight against bare and poorly vegetated soils is therefore a priority. In August 2026, a United Nations conference dedicated to combating desertification will be held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The question of restoring degraded land to reduce dust and prevent storms will be on the agenda.
