Abstract
The severe drought currently afflicting the Sudano–Sahelian zone to the south of the Sahara Desert has been suggested to be instrumental in producing an increased output of soil-derived aerosols into the atmosphere from the region1. During the very dry period 1972–74 mean aerosol concentrations at Barbados, West Indies, as affected by the African Dust Plume2, were three times that of pre-drought levels1, that is before 1968. A marked increase in the frequency of severe dust occurrences in northern Nigeria has also been noted during 1972 and 1973 (ref. 3). I present here data from selected meteorological stations, which show that dust-storm activity in the west and east of the Sudano–Sahelian belt has dramatically increased during the drought years; by a factor of 6 in Mauritania and up to a factor of 5 in Sudan.
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Middleton, N. Effect of drought on dust production in the Sahel. Nature 316, 431–434 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1038/316431a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/316431a0
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