Dust Storm — Central Deserts, Arizona

2016-08-24 · Central Deserts, Arizona

Event narrative

Thunderstorms developed across portions of the central deserts during the evening hours on August 24th and some of the stronger storms produced gusty outflow winds reaching as high as 40 mph. The winds stirred up dense blowing dust across favored dust prone areas to the southeast of central Phoenix and created dust storm conditions which impacted the community of Queen Creek. At 1850MST a trained weather spotter located 9 miles southeast of Queen Creek reported visibility down to one quarter of a mile in San Tan Valley due to a dust storm. The dense blowing dust created very hazardous driving conditions for motorists during the tail end of the evening rush hour. Fortunately, no accidents resulted from the sharply reduced visibility.

Wider weather episode

Thunderstorms developed during the evening hours across portions of the south central deserts on August 24th, and some of them affected areas to the southeast of central Phoenix including communities such as Sun Lakes and Queen Creek. Some of the storms produced gusty outflow winds as high as 40 mph which stirred up areas of blowing dust and lowered visibility to one quarter of a mile or lower in favored dust-prone areas. A modest dust storm resulted as reported by a couple trained weather spotters. The dust storm resulted in locally hazardous driving conditions during the tail end of the rush hour. No accidents were reported as a result of the dense blowing dust.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 647938. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.