Using a soil-derived dust emission scheme, the annual and monthly dust emissions in the western ''dry'' Sahara have been estimated for 1991 and 1992, respectively to 665 Mt and 586 Mt. Based on these simulations, an investigation of the seasonal and annual changes in dust emissions has been performed. The monthly dust emissions vary from 163 Mt in March 1991 to 8 Mt in December 1992. These seasonal variations are related to changes in the location and area of the source-regions and in the frequency of dust events. On the opposite, the interannual variations of the dust emissions are due to changes in the occurrence of the most intense dust events. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1996