Dust Storm — Southwest Desert Mimbres Basin, New Mexico

2011-04-01 to 2011-04-09 · Southwest Desert Mimbres Basin, New Mexico

Event narrative

Visibilities of a quarter mile were reported intermittently at the Deming ASOS. US Highway 180 north of Deming, Highway 11 between Deming and Columbus, and Highway 26 between Deming and Hatch were closed for parts of the day due to significant blowing dust.

Wider weather episode

A strong cutoff low was located over the Great Basin with a 125 knot jet stream rounding the base of this system and moving into Western New Mexico. Some of these strong winds were able to mix down to the surface and produce wind gusts over 60 mph with visibilities under a quarter mile at times.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 299447. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.