Dust Storm — Childress, Texas

2017-07-03 · Childress, Texas

Event narrative

A blinding dust storm struck southeast Childress County late this night in advance of a strong thunderstorm. As the dust storm enveloped Highway 287 near Kirkland, many motorists slowed to a crawl or stopped, but remained in their lane of travel. A semi trailer approaching from behind was unable to stop in time and crashed into a car, which proceeded to pile into another car. The two occupants of the first car were killed when their vehicle caught fire. Drivers of the semi trailer and second car received minor injuries.

Wider weather episode

Late afternoon thunderstorms developed from Tucumcari to Clovis, NM and quickly congealed into a squall line while trekking southeast across the Texas South Plains through the evening. These storms produced several instances of severe wind gusts as they traversed the Texas South Plains, in addition to a wall of dust followed by heavy rains and minor flooding. As this squall line decayed after sunset, additional storms fired along its outflow from the southeast Texas Panhandle through the Rolling Plains. One of these storms east of Childress produced a dust storm that contributed to a fatal multi-vehicle accident near Kirkland. After midnight, a small line of showers and some thunderstorms redeveloped over the western South Plains and moved south. Although radar indicated very weak precipitation intensities with this line, a macroburst and possible heat burst developed shortly after 0230 CST on July 4th and proceeded to strike the north and east sides of Levelland with fierce straight-line winds of 80-110 mph. In addition to causing widespread wind damage, two vehicles were overturned by these winds.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 699717. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.