Dust Storm — Northwest Plateau, New Mexico

2022-05-30 · Northwest Plateau, New Mexico

Event narrative

A member of the public in Farmington reported a dust storm with visibility below one quarter of a mile. The spotter reported that visibility from the dust generated from strong winds was as severe as 20 feet at times, but it was not long-lived.

Wider weather episode

A slow-moving Pacific Northwest storm system took one more day to track across the central Rockies on May 30, 2022. As it continued its track, southwesterly to westerly flow aloft across New Mexico remained strong. This led to another day of widespread breezy to windy conditons with wind gusts of 40 to 50 mph. Mountain wave activity that developed across the northern Sangre de Cristo Mountains did produce brief high wind at Raton with a peak wind gust of 67 mph.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1019619. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.