At a Glance Dust is third-deadliest weather-related cause of fatalities in Arizona.

Dust ranks first in terms of number of injuries caused by the storms. Dust is the third-largest weather-related killer in Arizona, according to a recent study.

Meteorologists with the National Weather Service and a University of Arizona atmospheric sciences researcher released the report, which looked at weather fatalities in the state over the last 50 years and concluded that dust ranked third, according to the Arizona Daily Star.

While fatalities from extreme heat or cold rank first and flash flooding ranks second, dust leads the list in the number of injuries in Arizona.

It could rank higher in the number of fatalities if researchers could make the correlation between episodes of blowing dust and deaths from valley fever or respiratory failure, which is caused by subsurface fungus that may become airborne when soil is disturbed.

Study author and meteorologist Glenn Lader said the new information updates a previous study. He noted that the data hasn't changed much since the 2008 study, but public interest has risen considerably.

Improving Predictions

The weather service has improved its predictions and the speed with which alerts are issued, according to Lader.

“We’re making great strides, but there is still a lot of work to do,” he said.

According to the report, 157 people died and 1,324 were injured in 1,521 “dust incidents” on Arizona highways between 1955 and 2011, with nearly half occurring along interstate highways in the southern desert regions, where the state’s major metropolitan areas and heavily traveled interstate highways lie.

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The study blames abandoned farmland “exacerbated by further disturbance of the land such as all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) or animals,” for the number of dust storms, as well as active farmland that can just as easily produce dust during tilling and planting.

“This tilling process creates a period where the land is more susceptible to blowing dust as the soils have been disturbed, thus resulting in lower wind thresholds for airborne dust before a new surface crust reforms,” the report reads.

Dust storms contribute to respiratory problems, which can be difficult to quantify and the storms' effects on air pollution need further study, said co-author and atmospheric scientist Aishwarya Raman.

Studying Haboobs

Raman is building a model of the giant dust storms known as haboobs, which blow into the Phoenix area about three times each summer. She hopes the model can help predict how they begin and their composition.

“What has not been done is to actually monitor the pollution," Raman said. "I’m trying to see where the dust starts, what are the prominent dust sources and how they travel and how fast they travel.”

Haboobs are giant walls of dust that are created from high winds that form from the outflow of a strong shower or thunderstorm. Cold air in front of the storm rushes down at an incredible rate, picking up massive amounts of dust and sand, blowing them into the air.

Haboobs can cause a rapid drop in visibility down to 0 in a matter of a few minutes or even less, according to weather.com meteorologist Tom Moore.

While progress has been made on ground sensors that will provide visual evidence of small dust storms that aren’t caught on radar, Raman said better and more high-resolution sensing is needed, from both satellites and ground sensors.

In April, the Department of Public Safety said it would change its safety protocols in and around milepost 376 on Interstate 10 near San Simon, a particularly notorious area for dust storm car crashes, reports Tuscon News Now.

"Being able to look back at what we went through this week," Sgt. Stewart Shupe told Tuscon News Now. "If we get any wind now we're going to shut down the roadway. We're not going to take any chances."

Shupe gained international attention when his patrol car was destroyed in a 14-car pileup during a dust storm on April 28.

It was the second accident in a week on the same stretch of road that is notorious for dust-related car crashes, Tuscon News Now also reports. One in 1995 claimed the lives of 10 people.

Dust storms not only threaten the public, they have an economic impact on the state, the report said, including routine closures of the interstate highways and air traffic at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

“Blowing dust is a significant underrated meteorological hazard in Arizona with impacts across many disciplines and sectors of the economy including transportation, public health and air quality,” concludes the report.

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