Saudi Arabia recorded its lowest level of dust and sandstorm activity in more than 25 years during June 2026, with dust events falling 99% below historical averages, according to the National Center of Meteorology (NCM). The NCM said June saw an almost complete absence of dust and sandstorms across the Kingdom, the lowest reading since monitoring began more than two decades ago.
The findings, announced by NCM Chief Executive Officer Dr. Ayman Ghulam, are drawn from a June report issued by the Regional Center for Sand and Dust Storms, a unit housed inside the same agency. Ghulam has run the NCM since November 2019, a tenure that has coincided with the rollout of Saudi Arabia’s largest environmental programs.
Where the Decline Hit Hardest
The June report does not break out a single national number alone. It splits the country into the regions where its monitoring network is densest, and the regional picture is what makes the headline figure possible.
Three of the country’s most populated corridors account for almost all of the drop. The Northern Borders region, on the Iraqi frontier, registered a 100% decline. Central Saudi Arabia, the band that includes Riyadh, Qassim and Al Kharj, recorded a 99% decrease. The Eastern Province, covering Al Ahsa, Dammam and Dhahran, also posted a 99% decline.
Each region sits on a different dust-generating geography. Northern Borders faces the open Iraqi steppe, where shamal winds lift loose silt. Central Arabia runs through the hard-packed gravel plains north of Riyadh. The Eastern Province carries coastal sabkha and exposed tidal flats around the Gulf. A near-total drop across all three in the same month is what the NCM is choosing to call a record.
| Region | Cities cited | June 2026 decline vs. historical average |
|---|---|---|
| Northern Borders | Not named in report | 100% |
| Central Saudi Arabia | Riyadh, Qassim, Al Kharj | 99% |
| Eastern Province | Al Ahsa, Dammam, Dhahran | 99% |
The Five Causes the NCM Cites
The agency tied the drop to a short list of national initiatives and a quieter weather pattern. None of the five is a single new measure; they are an accumulation of state programs running for years.
- The Saudi Green Initiative, the national umbrella for afforestation and land restoration, run through the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture.
- The Kingdom’s cloud seeding program, which officially launched in Riyadh in April 2022 and now operates across six regions.
- Improved vegetation cover, tied to the broader target of planting 10 billion trees under Vision 2030.
- Better grazing management on rangeland, including the network of royal reserves that limits open access.
- Weaker weather fronts during June, the synoptic-scale systems that normally lift dust across the Peninsula in late spring.
Four of the five are policy choices the NCM and its parent ministry control directly. The fifth is the one the agency does not control. The list is also explicitly non-exhaustive; the source uses “including” before naming the Saudi Green Initiative, the cloud seeding program and the rest, so a fuller set of contributing factors exists beyond what the report enumerates.
The Year That Set the Baseline
The 99% figure does not arrive out of nowhere. Saudi Arabia has been reporting steep dust declines for at least two years.
In August 2025, the same Regional Center for Sand and Dust Storms announced a 53% decrease in sand and dust storms and airborne dust for January to July 2025 against historical averages. The monthly breakdown that year ran 80% in January, 40% in February, 75% in March, 41% in April, 40% in May, 59% in June, and 41% in July. June 2025 alone was already a 59% drop. The June 2026 reading of 99% is the continuation of a trend that started visibly at least eighteen months earlier, with the same agency issuing the same kind of headline.
That history matters because it sharpens the question of what counts as a “lowest in 25 years.” A drop has been compounding for at least seven reporting cycles. The longer the trend runs, the harder it is to disentangle policy effect from the variability of regional weather.
How the Number Is Built
The Regional Center for Sand and Dust Storms runs a monitoring stack that is more layered than a single weather station.
Its observation toolkit, as listed in the NCM statement, includes satellite imagery, AERONET ground-based aerosol monitors, LiDAR profilers, numerical weather prediction models, and dedicated dust sampling and analysis equipment. The center says the combination is meant to strengthen early warnings and forecasting accuracy, support relevant authorities, and reduce the impact of dust on public health, the environment, and economic activity.
Two things follow from that stack. First, a 99% reading is not one number; it is a synthesis across satellite passes, ground sensors and model output, each with its own noise floor. Second, the reporting body is also the operational body running the greening programs that get the credit in the same press release.
What the Number Doesn’t Measure
June is a single month in a country whose dust season runs from late February into August. The NCM report covers the calmest part of the calendar, the stretch after spring shamals fade and before the summer monsoon trough reorganises over southern Arabia.
That framing leaves several things outside the headline:
- Cross-border dust: Most Arabian dust is generated outside Saudi borders, in Iraq, Iran and the Syrian desert, and lifted into the Kingdom by weather. A weak June over Saudi Arabia can still mean heavy dust days in Riyadh and the Eastern Province if the next month’s fronts change.
- PM2.5 and public health: The NCM statement does not pair the dust decline with a separate air-quality figure for fine particulate matter, the metric tied to hospital admissions and asthma attacks.
- Region-blind areas: The 100% drop in Northern Borders rests on whatever station coverage exists there. Sparse networks can read as zero activity when activity is low but unobserved.
- The seven other months: A 99% June does not, on its own, change the May or July numbers that the same agency was reporting last year.
None of these caveats cancels the headline. They bound it. The NCM is reporting a real and unusually quiet June, drawn from a real and unusually busy monitoring stack. The data is honest. The interpretation is the part that benefits from caution.
Where This Leaves the Green Initiatives
The Saudi Green Initiative launched with a stated target of planting 10 billion trees and shrubs and restoring millions of hectares of degraded land. The cloud seeding program, officially live since April 2022, is meant to lift rainfall by an estimated 10 to 20%. Both programs have visible infrastructure: tree nurseries in the Empty Quarter fringe, royal reserves with restricted grazing, and a network of seeding aircraft out of Riyadh.
Whether those programs moved the dust needle in June 2026, or whether a quiet synoptic pattern did most of the work, is a question the NCM report is not designed to answer. The agency lists the policy measures alongside the weather variable in the same bullet list, then does not weight them. Saudi Green Initiative officials have, in past reporting, framed their program as a long-horizon afforestation effort with environmental co-benefits rather than a single-month dust lever.
The June 2026 reading will be one of several data points the Vision 2030 environmental track is judged on. A second consecutive quiet June would tighten the case. A loud July would reopen it. Either way, the headline number now has a year of prior context behind it, and the next monthly bulletin from the Regional Center for Sand and Dust Storms will be read against that baseline.
