Does hot air cause more dusty winds?
DURANGO, Colo.—Spring always brings wind, but the winds this year seemed stronger and grittier. Travelers in Arizona reported dust storms that left sand a foot deep along the highway. As was also true last year, snowpacks across Colorado were coated with dust, leading to earlier runoff. Even Denver was affected, as cars in late April looked like they had gone through a car wash that dispensed dust, not water. Scientists generally warn about making too much of any one thing. Last winter’s snowstorms on the East Coast do not debunk global warming, nor do any one month’s hot temperatures prove it. The pattern of changing climate, they say, will only become distinct from the “noise” of natural variability with time. Still, the Durango Telegraph finds several people who contend the winds do fit in with global warming theory. The theory maintains that weather events in a warmer environment will produce more extremes, with more ferocious storms as well as more prolonged droughts. < Board tilt
