Dust storms are windstorms that severely blow dust clouds across a large area in arid or semi-arid regions. Dust storms are different from dust devils, which are small atmospheric dust-filled vortices created by differences in surface heating during fair, hot weather. Dust storms can cause poor air quality, decrease visibility, can be hazardous to human and animal health, can interfere with telecommunications, erode away the topsoil, block sunlight, and even can greatly influence not only local, but regional and global weather patterns by accumulating and transporting dust in the atmosphere. For example, after a dust storm in the Sahara, dust can move up to high altitudes, and can be carried hundreds or even thousands of miles away by air streams, causing an illness destroying Caribbean coral reefs, resulting in asthma outbreaks in the

Poor planting methods, extended periods of drought, and high winds were all factors...