Dust Storm — Sherman, Texas

2020-06-09 · Sherman, Texas

Event narrative

High winds caused blowing dust which reduced visibility to near zero. These conditions contributed to a traffic crash on U.S. Highway 54 around 1440CST around 11 miles northeast of Stratford involving a northeast-bound tractor-trailer driver who was unable to see the highway markings, became disoriented, and locked up the vehicle's brakes when it crossed center stripe causing a head-on collision. This vehicle collided head-on with a southwest-bound tractor-trailer in the left passing lane. The driver of a third tractor-trailer, which was southwest-bound in the right lane, in an attempt to avoid the collision, struck the other southwest-bound vehicle. The driver and passenger of the third vehicle were able to get out of the truck tractor before it became fully engulfed in flames. The drivers of the first two vehicles died at the scene. According to the nearest mesonet station, northwest winds of 40 to 47 MPH with gusts up to 60 MPH were occurring at the time of the accident.

Wider weather episode

A vigorous upper-level low pressure center moved east from southern Colorado across south central Kansas through the late afternoon on Tuesday, June 9, 2020. As it did, a surface low deepened and moved east across Kansas pushing a cold front south across the Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles before moving into western Texas. The cold front moved into the Oklahoma Panhandle early in the morning and quickly swept south through through the Texas Panhandle, continuing to move across the region. A strong pressure gradient between the low over Kansas and high pressure surging southeast out of Colorado created very strong winds across the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles behind the front, which lasted into the early evening.

Across the northern half of the Texas Panhandle, sustained winds increased into the 40 to greater than 50 MPH range out of the north to northwest, with gusts mainly in the 55 to 65 MPH range. Farther south, sustained winds generally ranged from 37 to 46 MPH with gusts mainly in the 50 to 60 MPH range. These strong winds lasted most of the day before finally diminishing from west to east beginning in the late afternoon. Although the relative humidity was only 15 to 35 percent across the northwestern two-thirds of the Texas Panhandle, the high winds and dry fuels associated with recent onset of moderate to extreme drought in the area led to a high wildfire danger across part of the region.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 888897. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.