U.S. landfall of big Asian dust storm a washout

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ The West Coast landfall of a large dust storm from Asia was a washout. <br><br>The dust was intense as it passed over Korea and Japan, but as U.S. atmospheric scientists predicted, it

Saturday, March 30th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ The West Coast landfall of a large dust storm from Asia was a washout.

The dust was intense as it passed over Korea and Japan, but as U.S. atmospheric scientists predicted, it was greatly diminished by the time it crossed the cloudy Pacific.

``It was diluted pretty much by the time it got here, but it did get here,'' NOAA spokeswoman Barbara McGehan said Friday from NOAA's Climate Modeling and Diagnostics Laboratory in Boulder, Colo.

``I think if it had been dry and clear you might have seen something,'' she said.

U.S. landfall had been expected Wednesday or Thursday. Air particulates levels did not rise Friday or in the preceding 24 hours in Los Angeles, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

Dust storms from Asia have sometimes made skies hazy over U.S. cities or made sunsets spectacular.

The cloud was dramatically visible over the Yellow Sea and Sea of Japan in a March 25 image made by a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite.

Reports from China last week described a ghostly haze over Beijing, and people covering their mouths to avoid inhaling dust. In South Korea, many airline flights were canceled and hundreds of schools were closed.

Dust blowing off the Mongolian desert plain chokes northern China every spring, but the problem worsened in recent decades because of deforestation and drought across the north.