Dust-Storms in Egypt as Noted in Maryut

The notes which follow form a supplement to the report entitled Duststorms in Egypt and their relation to the war period, as noted in Maryut, 1939-45, published in this Journal in 1945.1 That report covered what may be regarded as an isolated episode in desert history: the rise and fall of duststorm activity over a period of military operations with consequent abnormal disturbance and pulverization of the desert surface. Doubtless many deserts in the Middle East reacted in like fashion to the tramp of war, so that our experiences in the Egyptian Maryut can in no sense be unique; but under the circumstances it is unlikely that systematic records have been kept. It was the accident of continuous residence in a district of major disturbance that enabled the writer to compile, in some fashion, a consecutive account of the sequence of concurrent dust-phenomena over the period. With the passage of yet another year (October 1945-September 1946) it has become possible to supplement the dust-storm calendar set out in the Report (p. 36), making seven years in all. It is now possible also to fill in certain omissions in the earlier paper, and to contribute some notice of a local flood of unusual magnitude which, within its well-defined limits, transported large quantities of desert dust from the higher ground to the low-lying flats

Atmospheric sciences · Climatology · Geography · Meteorology · Storm · Aeolian processes and effects · Environmental Science · Geology · Historical and Architectural Studies

• Military surprise and the environment

  Open Access•Richard Essberger•GeoJournal•1995

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