Massive dust storm engulfs West Texas, causing near-zero visibility
A line of severe storms brought a massive amount of dust in West Texas on Monday afternoon, March 22, 2021. The dust storm turned skies into dark orange and left motorists with near-zero visibility.
A massive dust storm kicked up by severe storms blanketed the skies over West Texas on Monday afternoon, leading to extremely low visibility.
The thick dust turned the day into dark as an orange hue engulfed parts of the South Plains, blocking sunlight in the late afternoon.
A dust storm warning was issued for Lubbock and surrounding counties by Monday evening due to damaging wind gusts over 96 km/h (60 mph) and near-zero visibility due to blowing dust.
Holy Haboob.
Remarkable view of a dust storm sweeping across Texas. pic.twitter.com/TZjd4pt8c1
— Dakota Smith (@weatherdak) March 23, 2021
Dust storms are usually caused by intense thunderstorms. They often occur in areas with dry soil as loosely bound particles are lofted into the air, remaining suspended due to high winds.
Most dust storms in the U.S. occur in the South or Southwest, specifically Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and California.
One of the more impressive #Haboobs I have seen from satellite over West Texas this evening. #txwx #duststorm pic.twitter.com/xAQqjRpSLK
— Brad Panovich (@wxbrad) March 23, 2021
Strong winds kick up a large #dust storm in West Texas #haboob #TXwx
Real-time imagery here: https://t.co/2emyVXSFlk pic.twitter.com/7Nd61reReR
— Zoom Earth (@zoom_earth) March 22, 2021
Wild winds racing from eastern New Mexico into Texas prompting Dust Storm Warnings for parts of northwestern Texas. This haboob is a wall of dust with damaging winds in excess of 60 mph! #txwx pic.twitter.com/4JWRAcliVS
— WeatherNation (@WeatherNation) March 22, 2021
Seminole, TX @rrobertswxlab @TxStormChasers @NWSMidland pic.twitter.com/usFYiashMp
— Cam Wade (@gcwade) March 22, 2021
Parts of West Texas are under a severe dust storm warning till 6:30 p.m., stay inside Red Raiders!! (I’m am pulled over on the side of the road and waiting it out now) pic.twitter.com/mzJ5w5v4wt
— Katie Perkins (@KatiePerkinsDT) March 22, 2021
Featured image credit: NOAA/GOES-16, Zoom Earth
And the Magnetic North Pole is just at the first bump of the Lomonosov ridge.