"They bring traffic to a standstill, spread diseases and can be life-threatening. DW looks at how sandstorms form and why are they becoming more frequent."
"Like tsunamis in the sky, sandstorms produce dense clouds of dust and particles that bury everything below.
Even a small brush with a sandstorm is unpleasant, causing eyes and skin to itch and making breathing more difficult. Inhaling too many sand and dust particles can even be life-threatening.
When strong winds blow over bare or sparsely vegetated ground, they whirl up dry earth, sand and dust, lifting it through the air.
This often creates huge dust storms. Some churned-up particles fall back to the ground, but the smaller ones are often transported to great heights and carried further — sometimes even thousands of kilometers — by air currents.
According to the United Nations, around 2 billion tons of sand and dust are stirred into the atmosphere every year up to a height of around 12 kilometers (7.5 miles). Roughly a quarter of this ends up in the oceans. "
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