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Texas/Oklahoma Dustbowl (older thread)

Evan Bookbinder

EF2
Joined
Dec 19, 2003
Messages
130
Location
Kansas City, MO
Anyone from W TX/SW OK have any photos/video of today's rip-roaring event? I have seen blowing dust many times chasing along the dry line of a Kansas cyclone, but the 1/2 mile +DS (severe duststorm) observation from Lubbock is intruiguing to say the least and I cannot recall having seen that before. I know SarahCB lives in LBB and is an avid photographer, so hopefully there are some great pics out there (and not ruined cameras).

Truly amazing is just how clear this dust storm showed up on visible sat imagery and the 88Ds this afternoon. No doubt the tremendous increase in cloud condensation nuclei has played at least some degree in the development of convection over those 50 dews in N central OK late this afternoon. Hopefully will get to experience the dirty rain here later tonight!

Evan
 
The big wall of dust is right on our doorstep here in Norman - those of you in the OKC/Norman area reading this right now look west before it gets dark to see what I'm talking about. A little diffuse - looks more like an altostratus deck moving in than those pictures from the 1930s we've all seen - but you can definitely tell it's there. It's showing up quite nicely on TLX radar as well.
 
Started coming in about noon here. Of course I was up at school taking a test but it got increasingly worse as the afternoon went on. I heard from a friend that there was a 30 car pile up south of here on 84 around Snyder with at least one fatality.

Nothing like a good dust storm to get your mouth full of dirt as you walk all the way across campus!!

Graham Butler, wx5svr
[email protected]
Lubbock, Tx
 
I will post a lowrez video clip for you guys here in a few minutes from the Lubbock area. I was out shooting news video in it today. At one point I went to get out to get a shot and a very high gust hit, caught the door on my chase van bending it back the wrong way, slammed me into the door injuring my arm and broke my tripod. Took me a while before I could get the door shut again and damaged the door/fender in the process along with myself. What really sucks is it caused me to miss a deadline. :cry:

Anyway, I will post a link to a vid clip for you guys here in just a little while.
 
Started coming in about noon here. Of course I was up at school taking a test but it got increasingly worse as the afternoon went on. I heard from a friend that there was a 30 car pile up south of here on 84 around Snyder with at least one fatality.

Nothing like a good dust storm to get your mouth full of dirt as you walk all the way across campus!!

Graham Butler, wx5svr
[email protected]
Lubbock, Tx
Click to expand...

Two confirmed dead and at least half a dozen with life threatening injuries at this time. I couldn't even get near that area as traffic was shut down and backed up for MILES! That actual location was about halfway between Lubbock and Post, TX.
 
Dust storm!

Sounds like a VERY serious situation, hope everyone who was seriously injured pulls through alright!!
 
I didn't see it or get any pretty pictures, but I can give you a nice report about how it felt and tasted, since I was out in it all day. The bonus was, we're working on a particularly large house that, when the winds really start screaming, channels the air in crazy directions at breakneck speeds. I happened to be standing next to a large sand pile when the highest gust (that we felt) of the day hit - felt like getting slapped with a glove full of thorns.....50mph sand pellets.

Tasted like......well, sand.

My chase partner and I were leaning against a truck at the end of the day discussing the upcoming season. A small dust devil spun up about 5 feet from us, which I saw and immediately pointed to shouting "oooohh look, a dust devil!!!" He looked over his shoulder and said "oh there it is, cool!!!" After that brief excitement, where we were both acting like school girls in our glee, we just looked at each other and said at the same time: "We need a tornado baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad."
 
This continues to be an interesting evening here in Norman. At 9pm the dryline came through with the temperature rising from 61F to 66F. The sky was filled with dust reducing the vsby to about 4-5 mi, but the warm dry SW winds were nice after all the cool wx the past 3 weeks. Then around 11pm the main cold front came through, with winds shifting to the NW and temps falling into the mid-50s.
 
I'll be curious to see if our rain that's coming in later tonight is really dirty from all the dust in the air. It kind of makes me wonder if there's ever been cases of dirty snow falling from a situation like this. That would be odd to see two inches of fresh dirty snow on the ground.... :wink:
 
Relocating real estate

Pretty impressive dust video (David D./Lubbock) especially about 3/4 in as the dust streams across the highway. Where did all that real estate go? Someone in Missouri is saying..."I never ordered fill dirt..." 8)
 
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