19 October 2012

Plains Cyclone Brings Rare Dust Storm To The Deep South

Posted by Dan Satterfield

This image is from the NASA Terra Satellite and clearly shows the dust wrapping around the intense Great lakes Low this afternoon.

Winds gusted across the Plains to nearly 50 mph on Thursday, bringing a real dust storm to much of Kansas and Northern Oklahoma. Today the dust has reached Tennessee and Alabama, and the dry soil from the summer drought almost certainly played a role in this event as well.

The latest GOES image Friday afternoon shows the intense low near Chicago. This is what meteorologists call a cutoff low and it extends through much of the troposphere. It is slowly weakening now, and the strong winds are diminishing.