Abstract
Land degradation is a global problem. One of the main factors of this
degradation is intense winds in the world’s arid and semi-arid regions.
The wind acts on soils without vegetation cover in increasingly large
regions. The impact of dust storms is considerable, from massive soil
deterioration to health problems. In the arid regions of northern and
central Mexico, the problem of changing land use from grasslands and
forests to rainfed agriculture has increased notably in recent decades.
Recurring dust storms due to winds associated with the passage of cold
fronts have become a severe environmental problem. The Weather Research
and Forecasting Model (WRF-Chem) was applied to analyze dust storms that
occur mainly during the winter. An analysis was performed for wind speed
data in the period from October 2005 to April 2018. It revealed that
about 20 events per year exceeded a threshold erosion speed of 9 m/s.
Fifteen events with the potential to generate dust storms were selected.
The total amount of dust emitted was added together, and an average dust
storm was calculated. Since the massive land-use change began
approximately 50 years ago, a total erosion effect was estimated for
this period. The characterization of eight soil samples revealed the
texture of fine silty sands with low clay content and low organic
content due to the mechanical processes of removing the finest fraction.
Comparison between observed and modeled dust storm events showed good
agreement.