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Rare Illinois dust storm shows how far climate shifts are reaching [1]
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Date: 2025-06-04
On May 16, 60-mile-per-hour wind gusts swept across central Illinois, developing into a dust storm near Bloomington and Champaign, which reduced visibility to zero, damaged some soy and corn crops, and knocked over trees. As the dust storm moved north, a warning was issued for Chicago and northwest Indiana. It had been 40 years since the city had experienced a dust storm.
“If you ever tried to imagine what the Dust Bowl was like in the 1930s, all you had to do was be in central Illinois that Friday afternoon,” said Ken Ferrie, a field agronomist for Farm Journal.
While unusual in Illinois, dust storms have become increasingly common in the U.S., according to data from the National Centers for Environmental Information. Climate change has contributed to an increase in the frequency and intensity of these events, according to the federal agency.
Between 1996 and 2010, 512 dust storms were recorded across the U.S., averaging 34 per year.
However, from 2011 to 2024, the total number of dust storms reached 1,223 for an annual average of 87.
Caused by strong winds that lift dust from dry soil, dust storms can reduce visibility and cause traffic accidents, create respiratory problems, and spread agricultural chemicals into nearby waterways.
The increase has been especially sharp in key agricultural states.
Over the past decade, Arizona has led all states with 395 dust storms. The next highest states were California, Kansas and Texas.
Scientists believe regions with heavy row-crop use are especially vulnerable to dust storms as those fields are often bare after harvest and natural buffers, such as trees, have been removed.
“These are man-made ecological disasters, driven by a form of agriculture that exploits and depletes the land, leaving millions of acres of soil exposed and eroding for half the year,” said Robert Hirschfeld, director of water policy at Prairie Rivers Network, a nonprofit focused on clean water and soil. “We can’t keep farming this way. The scale of the problem is far too big to solve with taxpayer-funded incentives alone. If we want real change, we have to move beyond voluntary conservation and start requiring practices that keep soil in place and pollution out of our water.”
Data Harvest (formerly Graphic of the Week) is Investigate Midwest’s way of making complex agricultural data easy to understand. Through engaging graphics, charts, and maps, we break down key trends to help readers quickly grasp the forces shaping farming, food systems, and rural communities. Want us to explore other data trends? Let us know here.
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[1] Url:
https://investigatemidwest.org/2025/06/04/rare-illinois-dust-storm-shows-how-far-climate-shifts-are-reaching/
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