The wmo sand and Dust Storm Warning System: The wmo sand and Dust Storm Warning System

The WMO Sand and Dust Storm Warning System:

• The WMO Sand and Dust Storm Warning System:

• Helping Society Reduce Risk Through Research and Forecasts

SDS Impacts

• Human Health

• (Asthma, infections, Meningitis in Africa, Valley Fever in the America’s)

• Aviation ( air disasters)

• Ground Transportation

• Improved Weather and Seasonal Climate Prediction

• Agriculture (negative & positive impacts)

• Marine productivity

Health Impacts

Transcontinental Transport of Micro-organisms

• Saharan dust carries bacteria and fungi across the Atlantic

• 10,000 microbes/(g of soil)

• 30 percent of the bacteria isolated from airborne soil dust are known pathogens, able to affect plants, animals, or humans (Griffin et al., 2003)

Impacts on Agriculture

• A Chinese farmer walks amid a heavy sand storm in Minqin County, northwest of China's Gansu Province April 10, 2006. A strong sandstorm hit northwest China on Monday, killing one person in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and compelling dozens of trains to halt for for safety reasons. 330,000-ton sand fell on Beijing. Sand covered about one-eighth of China from April 14 to 18 and about 330,000 tons of sand fell in Beijing on Sunday night.

A WMO Sand and Dust Storm SDS Warning System

• WWRP Sand and Dust Storm Project Initiated in 2005

• ~45 WMO Members are involved

• ~12 research or operational forecasts are available

• 2006 Shanghai SDS group resolved to focus on global coordination led by WMO.

Objective Of The WMO SDSWS

• To enhance the ability of participating countries to establish and improve systems for forecasting and warning to suppress the impact of SDS

• By

• Establishing a coordinated global network of SDS forecasting centers delivering products useful to a wide range of users in understanding and reducing the impacts of SDS

Next Step