Earlier snowmelt is driving the northward migration of East Asian Sand and Dust Storms

Recent decades have witnessed significant shifts in sand and dust storm patterns across East Asia, yet the exact spatiotemporal patterns and mechanisms driving these changes remain unclear. Here, we analyzed daily meteorological observations and satellite aerosol products to derive dust optical depth, sand and dust storm (SDS) frequency, and related indices for 2001–2024. Our results show that SDS is concentrated in northern China and southern Mongolia and exhibits a clear northward migration. Partial‐correlation analyses reveal that, in sparsely vegetated regions, pre‐season snow cover exerts a stronger negative control on spring dust activity than vegetation cover. Both generalized linear models and structural equation modeling further reveal that, in these low‐vegetated regions, soil moisture generated from late winter snow cover is the primary factor mitigating dust generation, with wind speed remaining a contributing, but vegetation‐independent, factor. By contrast, in highly vegetated regions, vegetation is the dominant dust suppression mechanism, primarily through attenuating wind speed. Our results suggest that the observed northward shift in SDS is driven primarily by reduced winter snow cover and earlier snowmelt under warming, rather than by insufficient afforestation, thus underscoring the pivotal role of cryospheric changes in modulating aeolian processes.