Craig Koplien: Weather or Not

Texas Dust Storm Caused Our "Dirty Rain"

Story Created: Apr 13, 2008

Story Updated: Apr 13, 2008

Texas Dust Storm Caused Our "Dirty Rain"

Craig Koplien

email:  ckoplien@todaystmj4.com

If your car was outside on Friday, April 11th, it may have ended the day coated in dirt.

West Texas dirt, to be specific.

I received a couple emails Friday Night and Saturday asking if something besides rain and fog was in the sky on Friday.  Sure enough, there was.

The whole situation began with a huge dust storm in West Texas and New Mexico on Thursday, April 10th.  A strengthening weather system in that area led to winds of up to 60mph.  These winds whipped up enormous amount dust and dirt from the 2 states into and lifted it high into the atmosphere.  The track and strength of the responsible weather system was just right for the dust and dirt to be carried all the way to Wisconsin and northern Illinois.  This led to many reports of "dirty rain" in southern Wisconsin and "dirty snow" in the northern part of the state.

Here are a couple satellite photographs from Thursday afternoon that show the dirt and dust over West Texas and New Mexico.  (These are courtesy of the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies, CIMSS, and the National Weather Service, Sullivan, Wisconsin).


Here is the surface weather map from Thursday afternoon that shows conditions across the area where the dust storm occurred.  (Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Sullivan, Wisconsin.)


For an even more detailed discussion of this fascinating situation, and more satellite photographs, check out this blog from the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies...  http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/blog/archives/639





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