Understand long-term trends

Use the map to identify the dustiest, or least dusty, years on record, from 1960 to 2011. Compare the dust levels to the annual rainfall timeline. Use the knowledge to strengthen your wind erosion and ground cover management planning.

View our map:  My Dust History

Hover over a point to see data.
Click the point to read more.
Zoom in & out to explore Australia.

Recommended computer requirements:
1. Supported internet browsers: Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Safari .   Internet Explorer is mostly compatible, although IE7 is no longer supported by MapBox and may experience minor glitches.
2. Update your internet browser. MapBox maps are best viewed on the latest version of your browser. Update my browser

Information

About

The dust history is a record of how dusty it's been in the last 50 years. The graph shows the total annual number of dust event days recorded for each year (1960-2011). A Dust Event Day (DED) is a day where at least 1 dust event was recorded. For each year, the total number of DEDs possible is 365 days, although nowhere in Australia is dust that much of a problem! When viewed together as a timeline, you can see which years recorded a lot of dust, and which years were least dusty.

More long term patterns in wind erosion: Regional and Continental modelled wind erosion; My Dust Season, and Dust Event Types.

Geographic markers

The geographic markers in the map are 'Stations'. These are meteorological (weather) stations operated by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.

The NRM boundaries represent natural resource management regions as defined by the Australian Government, and further refined as per the report by Leys et al. 2009 "Improving the capacity to monitor wind erosion in Australia"

Data source

The data is sourced from Bureau of Meteorology records. Dust Event Days (DED) were calculated from the Bureau's visibility measurements and weather codes. Time period: 1960-2011.

How to print this data

To print the map with accompanying graph, follow these simple steps:

1. Position the map at the correct zoom-level you require
2. Click a geographic marker to display the data tooltip
3. Use the Print options in your internet browser

Help

This web-map is supported by the following internet browsers: Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Safari
For maximum functionality, make sure you are using the latest version.  Update my browser

Internet Explorer 7 is no longer supported by MapBox and may experience minor glitches when viewing the map.

If you still have trouble viewing the data, or think the data displayed looks incorrect, please contact us.

Contact

For more information, contact the project manager, Dr Craig Strong.