Dust Storm — Northwest Pinal County, Arizona

2025-09-01 · Northwest Pinal County, Arizona

Event narrative

Traffic camera from the Arizona Department of Transportation showed near zero visibility along the area of State Route 347 and Casa Blanca Road due to dense blowing dust from thunderstorm outflow winds. No accidents or injuries reported.

Wider weather episode

Mid-level high pressure centered over NW AZ resulted an easterly steering flow across much of the southern half of AZ. Thunderstorms initially developed over the Mogollon Rim during the early to mid afternoon hours and were steered west-southwestward into the lower elevations of south-central AZ with additional activity developing from outflow boundaries. The combination of MLCAPE values peaking at around 500 J/kg and DCAPE values near 2000 J/kg resulted in a very favorable environment for strong to severe downburst wind gusts.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1291872. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.