A tall, imposing plume of agricultural sediment blew from central Illinois and over dry farmland to envelop Chicago, dropping visibility to near zero last week during a type of dust storm mostly seen in arid climates in the Middle East, North Africa and the southwestern U.S.
“It’s pretty rare to have dust storms in Illinois,” said Trent Ford, the Illinois state climatologist. “It’s not unprecedented, but it’s uncommon. And for a dust storm to affect Chicago is even more uncommon.”
The last dust storm to hit Chicago occurred on May 31, 1985 — and the last one of this kind of magnitude in Chicago happened during the Dust Bowl in the early to mid-1930s. But Friday was the first time the local National Weather Service office in Romeoville issued a dust storm warning that included the Chicago area.
An unprecedented dust storm in Chicago might raise the possibility of a strong connection to climate change, “because we just haven’t seen this before,” Ford said. “But at the same time, the discussion of climate change often overrides what can be, in some cases, a more important discussion of land management.”
Meteorologists and farming experts say these events are like “perfect storms” of different factors: specifically dry conditions, sustained winds and, of course, dry soil that is waiting to be blown away. No matter the weather circumstances, wherever there is uncovered, open farmland — tilled or otherwise — there is an increased risk for a storm to form, Ford said.
Dust storms in recent years, particularly the deadly one south of Springfield in 2023 and Friday’s storm, have reignited debates over how big a role agriculture plays in what some think are just freak acts of nature.
Known as a haboob — an Arabic word that translates as “blast” or “gust” — this kind of weather event occurs when a thunderstorm or cold front forms and collapses, sending powerful winds downward that displace loose dust like silt, clay and soil. Former WGN-TV meteorologist Tom Skilling said it has been compared to taking a running garden hose and pointing it at the ground. When the water hits the ground, it fans out in all directions like air does when it flows out of a storm system.
The weather conditions were similar to a fatal dust storm two years ago that killed eight people and injured at least 36 in an 84-car pileup on Interstate 55. But that storm was not considered a haboob, given there was no large-scale organization of strong, straight-line winds around a weather front, according to Ford. On Friday, no deadly crashes were reported to Illinois State Police, which had closed some portions of I-55, I-74 and U.S. Route 136.
“The biggest difference,” Ford said, “is not necessarily the impact, but the actual driving factor.”
It’s difficult to predict whether such massive dust storms reminiscent of the Dust Bowl will become more common under a changing climate, Ford said. “You kind of have to break it down into the individual ingredients.”
On Friday, those included drought conditions during the state’s windiest time of year, the start of the season when farmers are planting or actively working the soil, and when little vegetation covers their fields. Clear, sunny conditions likely also meant fieldwork was underway, loosening dry topsoil that can easily drift away, Ford added.
Midwest springs are trending toward a wetter climate. But that doesn’t mean the region won’t experience drier years, like it has recently, due to natural variability. Illinois also isn’t getting any windier — or less windy, for that matter, despite what “everybody and their dog thinks,” Ford said. “The data that we have does not support that.”
Farm fields that are regularly tilled and left bare, without plant roots to hold soil in place, tend to be at greater risk of that topsoil being swept away by high winds or rain. Other methods don’t disturb the soil as much, making it less susceptible to erosion: One-pass tillage uses tractors with a special tool that turns over the soil once, and strip-tilling turns over just the row of soil where seeds are planted, leaving the rest of the field undisturbed and covered by residue from the previous crop.
“It (isn’t) just the practices, it (is) that perfect storm. But the practices fit within the storm,” said Richard Lyons, who runs a 300-acre family farm in Harvel, about 40 miles south of Springfield. He strip-tills his corn but doesn’t till his soybean fields at all.
Since 2014, Lyons has also planted cover crops to protect the soil against the elements, to keep a living root in the soil all year, and to add biodiversity to the state’s dominant two-crop rotation of corn and soybean.
Many farmers are more reluctant to change their tried-and-true methods, while others might feel pressured to keep their fields neat-looking with uniform, straight crops and no vegetation cover. Most, however, worry about the expenses associated with changing their practices.
Lyons has only seen long-term benefits, however, including high crop yields and healthy soil. For instance, his cover crops recycle nutrients from lower levels and bring them closer to the surface, where most corn and soybean roots are located.
“Therefore, you reduce the use of synthetic fertilizers on the land,” he said.
That also prevents nutrient runoff toward the Mississippi River and into the Gulf of Mexico. It’s a win-win, he said. “And it’s an economic saving to boot.”
Conservation by the wayside
Farming advocates also say the state and federal governments have failed at encouraging these types of planting methods through so-called conservation programs to provide financial and technical assistance.
Under President Franklin Roosevelt and in the wake of the Dust Bowl, volunteer-led agencies in Illinois — 97 across the state’s 102 counties — popped up to help and educate farmers through local and state efforts in hopes of preventing soil erosion and subsequent similar disasters.
Over the next few administrations, however, most lessons learned fell by the wayside. The districts have remained underfunded for years.
“The Dust Bowl was the largest man-made environmental disaster in U.S. history,” said Eliot Clay, executive director of the Association of Illinois Soil and Water Conservation Districts. “And it was born, pretty much, out of farming and the way that it was being practiced.”
With a projected state budget shortfall estimated close to $1 billion and uncertainty regarding federal funding, advocates worry about what the future holds for conservation practices in Illinois, which is three-quarters agricultural land.
“Now, especially, more than ever, with the current administration, those incentives are disappearing in a lot of ways. And farmers are being stuck with the practices that they’re being told are best — even though they’re likely not,” Clay said. “I really, truly believe that funding for agricultural conservation is incredibly important for our nation’s security and economy.”
Some worry that the state might remain unable to step in with incentives to replace those that the federal government has taken away through Inflation Reduction Act and U.S. Department of Agriculture funding. “As much as I don’t want to see any of this happen,” Clay said, “I hope that somebody is watching and thinking to themselves, ‘What can I do about this when I get back to Springfield?’”
‘Hell and high water’
Friday in Chicago began sunny and warm, with a high of nearly 80 degrees and a gentle breeze. It was a perfect day for Brett Borer, a Lakeview resident, to take friends who were visiting from out of town for a Beyoncé concert on an architectural boat tour of Chicago that also goes out on Lake Michigan.
But as the wind picked up, things quickly changed. The water got choppy. When the boat turned around on its way back to the river, a gray cloud was looming over the city.
“It looked like it was a rain cloud. And the forecast showed no rain,” Borer told the Tribune. “I was like, ‘I don’t know what’s happening.’ It happened so fast. All of a sudden, everything went brown.”
Passengers watched as Chicago disappeared in front of their eyes. While the boat was not engulfed in the dusty winds, it rocked violently and sprayed tourists with water. As fast as it came on, the storm soon passed and the sun came out again.
After a foggy week and a tornado warning that delayed the Beyoncé show on Thursday, Borer was worried about what the weather had in store for the weekend. He didn’t really expect a dust storm the likes of which he’d never seen here.
“We were (put) through hell and high water,” Borer said.
A dust storm enveloping Chicago is an unusual sight. And experiencing it anywhere is frightening, Clay said.
But to conventional farmers, a dust storm entails additional losses: Recently planted seeds and fertile topsoil from thousands of years of prairie can be blown away in seconds. Which also makes the issue an economic one.
“That’s also money in the air, leaving,” he said.
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