沙漠研究 19-1, 149- 152 (2009 )Journal of Arid Land Studies“Desert Technology IX ”
Refereed Paper

Relationship between the Climate Change andDust Storm Occurrence in China
Mingyuan DU1, Seiichiro YONEMURA1, Hiroyuki DEN2, Zhibao SHEN3, Yanbo SHEN4
Abstract: Monthly mean air temperature and precipitation data, monthly dust storm frequencies(times of dust storm occurrences) of 107 stations in North China were analyzed to clarify therelationship between the climate change and dust storm occurrence. Arid regions of North China
were divided into five and trends of dust storm occurrence and climate changes showed different
patterns for these regions, although a decreasing trend of total dust storm occurrence and anincreasing trend of temperature for whole North China. Dust storm occurrence decreased clearlyand had a good relationship with temperature increasing in spring and precipitation increasing inwinter in Northwest China, while that in Northeast China showed an increasing trend in recentyears and had no clear relation with temperature and precipitation change.
Keyword: Climate change, Dust storm, Regional division, Temperature increase

1. Introduction
Aeolian dust deduced mainly by dust storm has great impacts on the agriculture and living activities
in its origin arid and semiarid area. Furthermore, aeolian dust influences directly or indirectly theatmospheric radiation balance and hence global climatic variations as the largest source of aerosols (Tegenet al., 1996). Because of the growing interests in the influences of Asian dust aerosols on the climatesystem, atmospheric environment and human health, the spatial and temporal characteristics of dust
weathers including dust storm, blowing dust and floating dust are extensively studied in recent years (e.g.
Chun et al., 2001; Sun et al., 2001; Qian et al., 2002; Yoshio, 2002a, 2002b). It was demonstrated that inmost areas of northern China dust storm frequency generally revealed declining trends. In spite of thedecreasing trends of dust storm frequency in most arid and semi-arid lands of northern China, Asian dustfrequency (or Kosa) observed in Japan does not show any decreasing trends but some decadal variability
and recent increase of Asian dust frequency is related to the increase of dust storm frequency in the easternpart of Mongolia and Inner Mongolia shown a regional difference of dust storm frequency (Tian et al.
2007). However, it seems that there is no study on regional division of dust occurrence, especially on
regional relationship between climate change and dust occurrence. This paper will give some detailed
results on the regional characteristics of the relationship between climate change and dust storm occurrencein China.
2. Data and method
Dust storm frequencies data were compiled from two sources. One is prepared by Chinese
Meteorological Administration (CMA), which covers the period of 1954-2000 for 107 stations. Anotheris from the monthly summary of SYNOP Weather Reports, which is derived from the original four timeobservations every day and covers the period of 1999-2006 prepared by Japanese Meteorological
Administration (JMA) for 63 stations. Dust storm is defined when the current weather code is one of 9,30-35 and 98. Sixty-three stations included in the both datasets were used for the analyses of long-term
trend.
Monthly mean of air temperature and precipitation data of 107 stations prepared by Chinese
Meteorological Administration (CMA) were used for the analysis of climate change and the relationshipbetween the climate change and dust storm frequencies.
Arid regions of North China (north than N 35˚) are divided to five as follows: (1) northeast region:
east than E 115˚ and north than N 45˚; (2) east region: east than E 115˚ and south than N 45˚; (3) central
1

National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences, 3-1-3 Kannondai, Tsukuba, 305-8604 Japan.
Tokyo University, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Tokyo, 113-0032 Japan/Meiji University, 1-9-1 Eifuku, Tokyo, 168-8555 Japan.
3Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, CAS, Lanzhou, 730000 China.
4Center for wind and solar energy resources assessment, CMA, Beijing 100081,China.
2

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region: between E 105˚ and E 115˚; (4) east northwest region: between E 95˚ and E 105˚; (5) west
northwest region: west than E 95˚.
3. Results and Discussions
3.1 Dust storm occurrence and climate change in the whole North China
Figure 1 shows the inter-annual variations of dust storm frequencies (total times or days of a year andin spring (March, April and May), mean air temperature in spring and precipitation in winter (December,January and February) of North China (mean of 63 stations) in recent 53 years (1954-2006). Theinter-annual variation of dust storm frequency (both total times and that in spring) shows a decrease trend
and inter-annual variation of temperature shows an increase trend. However, inter-annual variation ofprecipitation shows a decrease trend in 1950’s and early 1960’s and large variations or increase trend after
the decreasing period.
1225
D_spring

P_winter

T_spring

23211981761513411Precipitation (mm)Dust storm occurrence (times)
Air temperature(℃)

10D_yearly927051954

1959

1964

1969

1974

1979

1984

1989

1994

1999

2004

Years (1954-2006)

Fig. 1. Inter-annual variations of dust storm frequencies (total times of a year and in spring (March, April andMay), mean air temperature in spring and precipitation in winter (December, January and February) of
North China (mean of 63 stations) in recent 53 years (1954-2006).

Therefore, as shown in Figure 2, dust storm occurrence decreased in proportion to increasing intemperature of spring (March, April and May) during recent 53 years for whole North China. However,Dust storm occurrence in spring was in proportional to precipitation (snowfall) amount statistically before
1984 but not clear relationship after 1984. The correlation coefficients were 0.63 for both relationships.
7
Dust storm occurrence (times)

Dust storm days in spring (MAM)

7
654
3
2
1

y = -1.1736x + 12.876
R2 = 0.3911

654
3
y = 0.1727x + 1.5508
R2 = 0.3935

21006.5

7

7.5
88.5
99.5
Air temperature in spring (MAM,°C)

1010.55101520Precipitation in winter (mm)25Fig. 2. Relationship between dust storm occurrence and air temperature in spring during 1954-2006 (left) andprecipitation in winter during 1954-1984 (right) for whole North China.

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3.2 Regional characteristics of the relationship between climate change and dust storm occurrence
Dust storm frequencies were different for the five regions. The west 3 regions (west northwest, east
northwest and central) have higher frequencies than the east two regions. Inter-annual variations of dust
storm occurrence in the five regions showed decreasing trends with different patterns for each region.
There was a period about twenty years in which dust storm occurrence decreased very clearly (decreased
about 60%) in each region. However, this period seems appeared earlier in east part regions than west
part regions such as periods 1972-1992, 1974-1994, 1976-1996, 1978-1998 and 1980-2000 for northeast,east, central, east northwest and west northwest regions, respectively. Dust storm occurrences decreased
about 2, 3, 6, 12 and 9 days during this period for the five regions, respectively.
Relationships between monthly dust storm occurrence and monthly air temperature and precipitation
during these periods were analyzed (some are shown in Figs 3 to 5). In the northwest 3 regions, dust
storm days decreased form about 20 days in 1950’s to about 5 days in 2000’s. Dust storm occurrence
decreased in proportion to increase of the air temperature in spring and increase of the precipitation(snowfall) in winter as shown in Figures 3 and 5. Du et al. (2002) pointed out that most dust storms inspring in Northwest China were probably generated by cold frontal systems with dry squall lines. Thesesuggest that the recent global warming is more evident in the Northwest China, where the frequency ofcold air invasions from the higher latitudes is decreasing (Du, 1996). However, There are few changes forthe dust storm days in the Northeastern China (regions east and northeast) and had an increase trend there
in recent twenty years as shown in Figure 4. Relationship between dust storm occurrence and temperatureand precipitation was not so clear even during the decreasing period as shown in Figure 6. Dust storm innortheast China as well as in East Asia is related with cyclones activity as revealed by Yoshino (2002a,2002b). Therefore, change of dust storm occurrence in Northeast China may be caused by the developed
stronger cyclones in East Asia as a result of global warming (Yoshino, 2002a, 2002b) as well as humanactivities with severe land degradation there.

121420
1315
1210
115
0

1010

D_spring
T_spring

25

820

615

410

2501954 1959 1964 1969 1974 1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004
Years (1954-2006)

01954 1959 1964 1969 1974 1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004
Years (1954-2006)

Fig. 3. Same as Fig. 1 except for west part of northwest
region.

Fig. 4. Same as Fig.1 except for east region.

67

Dust storm days in spring (MAM)

Dust storm days in spring (MAM)30
D_yearly
P_winter

Precipitation (mm)25D_spring
P_winterDust storm occurrence (times)
Air temperature (°C)

15
D_yearly
T_spring

Air temperature (°C)

Dust storm occurrence (times)
Precipitation (mm)

30

5432

R2 = 0.4475

1065432

R = 0.4178
2101010.5

1111.51212.5

13Air temperature in Spring (MAM)

13.5

14468

101214

161820Precipitation in winter (DJF)

Fig. 5. Relationship between dust storm occurrence in spring and air temperature in spring (left), precipitationin winter (right) for west part of northwest region during 1980-2000.

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1.8

Dust storm days in spring (MAM)

Dust storm days in spring (MAM)

1.8
1.6
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6

2

R = 0.1987

0.4
0.2

1.6
1.4
1.2
R2 = 0.0961
10.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
008

8.5

9

9.5

1010.5Air temperature in Spring (MAM)

1111.54914192429

Precipitation in winter (DJF)

Fig. 6. Same as Fig. 5 except for east region during 1974-1994.

4. Conclusions
Analyses of the relationship between the regional climate change and dust storm occurrences by using
monthly mean data in North China led to following results:
1) Dust storm frequency in whole North China has decreased greatly as air temperature increasing during past
53 years (1954-2006). There is a good relationship between dust storm occurrence and temperature.
Decreasing rate of dust storm occurrence is in proportional to increasing of air temperature. Dust storm
occurrence in spring was proportional to precipitation (snow) amount statistically before 1984 but not clear
relationship after 1984.
2) Trends of dust storm occurrence and climate changes showed different patterns for different regions.
There was a period about twenty years in which dust storm occurrence decreased very clearly. However
this period seems appeared earlier in east regions than west regions. That is 1972-1992, 1974-1994,1976-1996, 1978-1998 and 1980-2000 for northeast, east, central, east northwest and west northwest
regions, respectively. Dust storm had a good relationship with temperature increasing in spring andprecipitation increasing in winter in Northwest China (both west and east), while that in east part of North
China (northeast region and east region) showed an increasing trend in recent years and had no clear relation
with temperature and precipitation change.
3) Relationship between temperature increasing and dust storm occurrence decreasing in spring in northwest
regions suggesting that it is the global warming effect by decreasing the cold air invasions. Increase indust storm days in the Northeastern China in recent years may be caused by the developed stronger cyclones
in East Asia as a result of global warming as well as human activities with severe land degradation.
Acknowledgements
This research was partially supported by Special Coordination Funds for Promoting Science andTechnology of Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan(2000-2004) and by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) of the Ministry of Education, Science, Sportsand Culture, 19255017, 2007.
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