China and US-Mexico border experienced record dust storms in 2025, UN agency says

The report says regional dust storms highlighted growing risks affecting more than 150 countries

A high speed train travels past buildings shrouded in sand and dust amid a duststorm in Beijing, China Apr 15, 2021. Picture taken through a window. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File Photo/File Photo

Record-breaking sand and dust storms battered parts of China and the US-Mexico border region during 2025, disrupting transport, damaging health and the environment, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in a new report on Friday.

In April 2025, dust sweeping from Mongolia triggered China's worst sand and dust storm in a decade, measured by intensity, duration and geographical reach, the report found.

Along the US-Mexico border, dust storms were unusually frequent and intense. El Paso, Texas, recorded 50 dust-weather days in 2025, more than double the annual average and the highest number since the "Dust Bowl" disaster of the 1930s, the WMO report said.

The world's highest average dust levels remained centred on the Bodélé Depression in Chad, one of the planet's most active regions of dust.

Around 2 billion tonnes of dust enter the atmosphere each year, much of it originating in major desert regions including the Sahara, the Gobi and the Arabian Desert.

While dust transport is a natural process, factors such as drought, poor land management and environmental degradation are contributing to the problem, the United Nations weather agency said in its latest report.

It said that while global average dust concentrations remained broadly unchanged from the previous year, severe regional dust events highlighted the growing risks posed by sand and dust storms, which affect more than 150 countries worldwide.