Dust Storm — Gila Bend, Arizona

2022-06-26 · Gila Bend, Arizona

Event narrative

Visibility of 100 feet or less in blowing dust from thunderstorm outflow around Milepost 81 of I-8 near Sentinel. No accidents or injuries were reported.

Wider weather episode

An inverted trough at 700 mb moved across southern Arizona and with sufficient instability and moisture in place with MLCAPE of around 1000 J/KG and PWAT values of between 1.3 and 1.6 inches, widespread thunderstorm activity was observed across most of south-central and southwest Arizona. Storms first developed across the higher terrain north and east of Phoenix as well as across portions of southern Maricopa County during the early afternoon hours. These storms sent two outflow boundaries from opposing directions, which then collided across the Phoenix metro, sparking the development of additional storms over the Phoenix area. Another cluster of storms then developed across portions of southwest Arizona during the late afternoon into the early evening hours. No damages or injuries were reported.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1034696. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.