gobidesertWhy has our air looked so hazy since last Friday? It was made in China, you might say, and blown across the globe to California.

Hard to believe, but Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District Director Ted Schade confirmed it. NASA documented by satellite the Gobi Desert phenomenon. Schade said that in the Spring sometimes a really fast jet stream moves over Asia, to the north and over to Alaska. Then it blows right down over California. What many here thought must be smoke from a fire is, in fact, dust from Asia.

Great Basin’s Air Blog said, “Long-range transport from a massive dust event last week in the Gobi Desert has followed atmospheric streamlines to arrive in the Owens Valley today.” That was on Friday. NASA’s article on this event said dust from the Gobi Desert blew across the coastal plain of eastern China. Beijing has experienced two dust events in March.

Ted Schade said this kind of event happens once every couple of years. He said the jet stream creates a kind of blanket effect in California from the dust on the other side of the world.

The Gobi Desert is considered the fifth largest desert in the world and the largest in Asia. It covers 500,000 square miles.

Discover more from Sierra Wave: Eastern Sierra News

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading