Dust storms in the Canadian Prairies

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Abstract
Although dust storms are quite frequent in the Canadian Prairies, no scientific studies of the nature of dust storms of this area exist, to the authors' knowledge. This work is a preliminary step in depicting temporal and spatial variations of dust storms in the Canadian Prairies. Dust storms occur at least once to as often as five times per year, on average, in the agricultural prairies. This frequency indicates the risk of occurrence of the various impacts of dust storms, such as serious soil erosion. Dust storm frequencies exhibit a pronounced peak in the spring and a weak secondary peak in August. The spatial pattern of dust storms indicates a low risk of occurrence in the northern agricultural prairies and the highest risk in the south central prairies. Knowledge of these patterns in space and time should facilitate the control or avoidance of such impacts of dust storms as wind erosion of soils, crop damage, air pollution, and general environmental degradation. Studies should be carried out to further investigate the relationships of climatic factors with dust storms as well as their linkages with other environmental aspects.

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