The northern Chihuahuan Desert has undergone rapid landscape change, including loss of native vegetation, woody plant encroachment, expansion of agriculture, and new dust sources. These changes resulted in increased dust activities and accelerated land degradation. Recently, the region has witnessed frequent severe dust storms, affecting regional air quality, human health, dryland ecosystems, and socio-economic conditions of the people living in the US-Mexico borderlands. In Spring (March-May) 2025, an unusually large number of dust events formed in the northern Chihuahuan Desert, with a frequency of dust storms in El Paso, Texas, not experienced since the 1930s Dust Bowl. This talk will address how to understand the drivers of recent frequent dust events across the Chihuahuan Desert by factors such as regional agricultural expansion and perennial cover combined with the strong winds of Spring 2025 resulted in frequent severe dust events. A call to cross-border coordination is needed urgently to mitigate future dust events, associated hazards over downwind communities, and to make sustainable drylands.

Dr. Saroj Dhital is a Research Scientist, at New Mexico State University. He does research on land cover change, dust emissions and transport processes, and their impacts. He holds a PhD, Atmospheric Science, University of Nevada, Reno