English: High winds have been sweeping spectacular clouds of dust across parts of the Arabian Peninsula and Middle East since late April 2022. On May 5, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer captured an astonishingly large and thick cloud of camel-colored dust blanketing southeastern Iraq and northern Saudi Arabia—a cloud so thick that it completely obscured the land beneath it from view. Although dust covers most of the landscape captured in this image, including parts of Iran and Kuwait, the extremely dense cloud spans an area measuring more than 130,000 square kilometers (50,200 square miles), an area larger than the U.S. state of North Carolina.

According to media reports, the ochre-colored dust dropped visibility, triggered health warnings urging people to stay indoors, and closed airports in Saudi Arabia and Iraq. The fine dust and sand suspended so thickly in the air also sent many people to the hospital in Iraq and was responsible for one death in Baghdad. Reports of the number who sought assistance at hospitals vary, but it is likely more than 1,000 people were hospitalized. Most of those hospitalized had pre-existing respiratory illnesses that were worsened by the suspended particulates.

Weather forecasts for Saudi Arabia warn of continued high winds, rainstorms, and sandstorms through at least May 8. Surface winds on the Red Sea are expected to be northerly to northwesterly with speeds between 25 – 50 km/h (18-30 mph), which is plenty strong enough to create widespread dust storms.

A report by the United Nation’s Joint Analysis and Policy Unit (JAPU) states that Iraq is considered one of the region’s most vulnerable countries to climate change and it faces a unique set of environmental challenges. Rising environmental degradation and increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, especially Sand and Dust Storms (SDS), take an enormous toll on socio-economic life and human development across the entire region. The report states that it has been recognized that climate change and environmental degradation transcend boundaries and that they can’t be addressed effectively through national level interventions alone, and regional governments have acknowledged that addressing environmental issues, such as SDS, is an opportunity for enhanced cooperation and for making a tangible difference. In Iraq, the Ministry of Environment recorded 122 dust storms and 283 dusty days and sources suggest that within the next ten years, Iraq could witness 300 dust storms per year.