Dust Storm — Central Deserts, Arizona

2016-08-30 · Central Deserts, Arizona

Event narrative

Thunderstorms developed across portions of the central deserts during the late afternoon hours on August 30th and some of the stronger storms produced gusty outflow winds as high as 40 mph. The gusty winds stirred up dense blowing dust in favored dust-prone areas to the southeast of central Phoenix, and created dust storm conditions in the community of Queen Creek and San Tan Valley. At 1700MST a member of the public reported visibility down to 1500 feet in dense blowing dust about 7 miles southeast of Queen Creek. At about the same time, a trained spotter 9 miles southeast of Queen Creek reported visibility down to one quarter of a mile in San Tan Valley. A Dust Storm Warning was not issued, a Blowing Dust Advisory was issued instead.

Wider weather episode

Thunderstorms developed across portions of the central deserts during the late afternoon hours on August 30th, and some of the stronger storms produced gusty outflow winds as high as 40 mph. The gusty winds stirred up dense blowing dust in the common dust-prone areas to the southeast of central Phoenix and this led to the formation of a dust storm. Visibility dropped below one quarter mile across portions of Queen Creek and San Tan Valley to the southeast of Phoenix. A Dust Storm Warning was not issued however, likely due to the isolated nature of the dust storm conditions. A Blowing Dust Advisory was issued instead.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 647947. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.