A Hebrew University expert warned Monday that dust storms like those that carpeted Israel over the weekend are likely to become more common and start earlier as a result of climate change.
Assaf Hochman, who researches climate, extreme weather and forecasting at the university’s Earth Sciences Institute, said that Saturday’s severe haze, which sent Tel Aviv and Jerusalem to the top of the global pollution index, resulted from a storm near Libya in the southern Mediterranean, which lifted sand from North Africa and Egypt and transported it at least 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) to Israel as part of a phenomenon known as a sharav cyclone.
This is a “low-pressure” system that forms over North Africa and travels east along the Mediterranean coast. While winter storms bring rain, these dry cyclones bring searing, dusty air from the desert.
“These dust or sand-related storms happen every year, usually between March, April, and May, or in the fall, in September and October,” Hochman said, referring to transitional periods during which Israel’s weather is often unpredictable.
“This year, it was earlier than usual,” he went on. “With dry conditions and enough wind, [the dust or sand] can travel great distances and get to higher elevations — under certain atmospheric conditions, it can reach around 5,000 meters above ground where there are very strong winds from west to east.”
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He added that similar storms elsewhere can take dust from Africa to Europe, while nearly every year, dust from the Sahara Desert flies over the Atlantic Ocean and reaches the US.
View of the Tel Aviv skyline during a dense sandstorm, September 08, 2015. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
Hochman said that while Saturday’s storm was intense, it was not unprecedented. He recalled a sandstorm in 2015 that turned the country yellow. The Environmental Protection Ministry dubbed that storm the worst that the state had ever endured.
Hochman said he and his colleagues at the Earth Institute were researching how rising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, mainly driven by burning fossil fuels, affect the length of the seasons, and that they expected winters to become shorter and summers to lengthen.
“Spring is expected to start earlier, with events like the dust storm we just saw becoming more frequent, ” he continued. “The Mediterranean area is drying so that there’s more exposed sand and dust. Furthermore, the land is heating up faster than the sea, and we expect more of these Sharav cyclones as the difference between land and sea temperatures grows.”
He added that these earlier, more frequent storms would have implications for Israeli agriculture, public health, and more.
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