Use the map to identify the dominant dust event types seen each year, and use the knowledge to strengthen your wind erosion and ground cover management planning.
View our map: Dust Event Types
Hover over a point to see data.
Click the point to read more.
Zoom in & out to explore Australia.
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We've categorised dust events into 4 classes in order of severity: Moderate Haze; Severe Haze; Moderate Dust Storm; Severe Dust Storm. The graph shows the proportion of dust events (No. events %) observed per year, in each category. You can see, each year, what the main type of dust event was (e.g. 60% of events were moderate hazes). When viewed together as a timeline, you can see how the main type of dust event may have changed over the years. We show data for the time period 1960 to 2011.
For more annual wind erosion data, see My Dust History.
For more data on the severity of wind erosion, see Regional Erosion (Modelled Wind Erosion).
The location 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" ![]()
The data is sourced from Bureau of Meteorology records. Time period: (1960-2011)
To print the map with accompanying graph, follow these simple steps:
This web-map is supported by the following internet browsers: Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Safari
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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.
For more information, contact the project manager, Dr Craig Strong.

This work by DustWatch Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia License.