Dust Event Variations Between China's Different Climate Zones

Dust weather may occur and be frequent in some nondry climate zones due to extreme natural climatic or disturbance events and human activities. In this study, the spatiotemporal characteristics of dust events at 1941 meteorological stations in China, encompassing 13 Köppen-Geiger climate zones, were investigated. Floating dust frequency (FDF), blowing dust frequency (BDF), dust storm frequency, and related meteorological data were analyzed to assess dust activity from 1960 to 2020. Dust events decreased significantly from 1960 to 2020, and the BDF had the greatest rate (−0.13 d y⁻¹), while the FDF had the greatest mean frequency (4.349 d y⁻¹). The frequency of dust events (FDE) was two orders of magnitude greater in the cold desert climate when compared with the other climate zones, although the annual wind speed was not always greater. The FDE in the nondry climate zones ranged from 0.005 d y⁻¹ in the Aw (tropical savanna climate) to 12.34 d y⁻¹ in the ET (polar tundra). As a nondry climate zone, the ET had more frequent dust activity than some of the other dry climate zones. Dust events were generally most active in March, April, and May. However, the most active month could occur as early as January (e.g., 1963) and as late as June (e.g., in 1967). Results show that dust activity was associated with meteorological parameters in every climate zone and that the impact of human activities (e.g., overcultivation) on dust activity was non-negligible. Nonarid dust activities may affect integrated region climate patterns and carbon cycle modeling.