Recent extreme dust storms in Central Asia associated with tropical Pacific and Arctic teleconnections

While atmospheric dust affects the climate system via a number of pathways, the frequency and intensity of dust emission from dryland areas are strongly tied to the global climate. Several extreme dust storms stuck Central Asia during recent years, including a Haboob-like salt dust storm from the dried-up seabed of the former Aral Sea during early summer 2018 and a record-breaking dust storm in southeast Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan during November 2021. Such extreme events are typically caused by multiple factors and processes acting together. Recent studies show that (1) the extreme dust activity in Central Asia occurred over anthropogenic dust source regions linked to agricultural activities which increased the sediment supply for wind erosion; (2) the sediment availability was enhanced by severe drought conditions resulting from the wintertime precipitation deficit over the High Mountain Asia region; (3) the winter hydroclimate anomaly was influenced by the Northern Hemisphere westerly jet stream anomalies in response to tropical and extratropical (Arctic) drivers; and (4) the intense dust-uplifting winds were triggered by rapid cyclogenesis and formation of high winds linked to amplified quasi-stationary Rossby waves across the Northern Hemisphere. Through case studies, this presentation will discuss the recent extreme dust activity over midlatitude dryland regions associated with tropical Pacific and Arctic teleconnections.