Dust Storm — Southwest Desert/lower Gila River Valley, New Mexico

2025-02-27 · Southwest Desert/lower Gila River Valley, New Mexico

Event narrative

Winds gusted over 50 mph at times along the Lordsburg Playa resulting in dust channels that created near zero visibilities. These visibilities affected Interstate 10 and caused an 11 vehicle accident around mile marker 10. The accident and continued reduced visibilities at times kept the interstate closed through much of the day.

Wider weather episode

A back door cold front pushed through southern New Mexico the morning of February 27th. On the back side of the front, east to southeast winds increased across the Lordsburg Playa and created dust channels which reduced visibilities to near zero along Interstate 10 resulting in a fatal accident.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1233415. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.