Climate Central: A dusty spring in Asia and Africa can increase snowfall thousands of miles away in California's Sierra Nevada mountains, according to a new study.
The process begins when winds stir up tiny particles of dust, pollution, bacteria and heavy metals from the Taklimakan and Gobi deserts in Asia and the Sahara in northern Africa.
In a matter of days, those particles -- known to scientists as aerosols -- travel halfway around the world, carried high above the Earth by the Jet Stream. When they run...