I want to be very careful here, but as you may have heard, six people died in an auto accident in Illinois after a dust storm hit.

 

The dust storm in Illinois caused zero visibility and was blamed for a 40-60 car pileup which resulted in dozens of injuries as well.

This, in many ways, was a first for people in Springfield and was in fact the first time a blowing dust warning was issued for the area.  Pretty simply, they had high winds interact with dry, unirrigated, and freshly plowed farmland.

So will this kind of thing happen here? As you well know, it already does. In fact, many farmers have put things in place to keep the dust down (after all, they paid for that soil and they'd like to keep it). You can't just write this off as Springfield being inexperienced in this area though. No matter what you believe is the cause, hotter, dryer days are here, and that means more potential for dust.

I would caution West Texas drivers with the following; sure you are experienced in driving in dust storms, but keep in mind that maybe the other drivers around you aren't. Then there's the simple fact that it doesn't matter how good of a driver you are,  zero to low visibility is absolutely, positively treacherous, and we could easily see the kind of pileup here. Pull over or stay home when conditions are bad. I promise if conditions are that bad, everyone will understand your excuse for being late or absent.

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It's actually quite beautiful.

Lubbock Duststorm February 26th, 2023

 

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