An upper trough digging far south to near the US/Mexico border brought strong winds to a broad region, resulting in widespread blowing dust. Winds gusts in excess of 50 mph were reported at many stations across eastern New Mexico and west Texas. GOES-East Water Vapor imagery and RAP analysis captured the evolution of the storm system and its details well, including the precise location of the trough axis and main upper circulation, more subtle shortwaves downstream, the region of dry descending mid-level air, and the position of most rapid mid-level winds (Fig 1).
From NWS Amarillo, TX in the early PM of 3/24: “18z WV satellite shows large scale troughing over the Four Corners with a shortwave over east central NM moving northeast toward the Panhandles.”
From NWS Midland, TX in the early PM of 3/24: “WV imagery shows the first trough has made it to the Four Corners, resulting in strong, southwest flow aloft over West Texas and Southeast new Mexico this morning. The KMAF 12Z RAOB traveled over 250 miles, and landed at Possum Kingdom Lake, having been caught up in a 160kt jet rounding the base of the trough.”
From NWS Dodge City, KS in the early PM of 3/24: “Water vapor satellite imagery and RAP upper air analysis indicates a large, deep, longwave trough is in place over the western CONUS, with an embedded shortwave trough rounding its base over NM. Ahead of this wave, a sub-990-mb surface trough has taken shape over eastern CO, with strong cyclonic flow around it bringing 25-30 mph southerly winds with gusts of 35-40 mph to southwest KS.”
The strong winds and relatively dry conditions resulted in widespread blowing dust across the region. A “GeoDust” product combines the better resolution True Color Imagery (Geocolor during the day), with the blowing-dust-sensitive Split Window Difference imagery for values associated with blowing dust (Fig 2). The goal is to highlight blowing dust in the true color imagery, which can otherwise be difficult to discern, especially when forward scattering is at a minimum.
IR methods alone such as in Dust RGBs are usually the safest bet to detect blowing dust regardless of solar/viewing geometry. As has been discussed numerous times on this blog, the Color Vision Deficiency (CVD) Dust RGB builds upon the traditional Dust RGB to provide better blowing dust detection. See examples of both below for this event (Fig 3 and 4). NWS Dust Storm Warning polygons are overlaid. The dryline can also be diagnosed in the Dust RGBs over west/southwest Texas.
NWS offices rely on satellite imagery in conjunction with ground observation (webcams, law enforcement, sfc obs, etc) to detect blowing dust and issue warnings.
From NWS El Paso, Texas AFD in the early PM of 3/24: “Normally, a cold front would help settle the dust, but dust satellite products show several active plumes.”
From NWS Lubbock, Texas AFD in the early PM of 3/24: “Areas of dust can already be seen on satellite imagery with reduced visibility occurring at times. Hazardous driving conditions are highly likely with the ongoing strong southwesterly winds and reduced visibility.”
From NWS Midland, Texas Dust Storm Warning in the late AM of 3/24: “At 1136 AM MDT, satellite indicated a wall of dust was along a line extending from 7 miles south of Eunice to 6 miles southeast of Jal Airport, moving southeast at 60 mph.”
Satellite was mention as the source for numerous Dust Advisories from NWS El Paso, Albuquerque, Lubbock, and Midland during the event.
A longer animation of the CVD Dust Imagery shows the evolution of blowing dust across the region and into the evening. By 06Z, the blowing dust can still be faintly diagnosed in the imagery into Oklahoma and Kansas (Fig 5).
VIIRS Imagery from JPSS satellites captured the scene four times in the early afternoon, providing a slightly higher spatial resolution view of the dust plumes, allowing one to better diagnose the source locations of the plumes (Figure 6).
East just ahead of the blowing dust, severe thunderstorms developed along a dryline. A GOES-East 1-min meso sector captured the development of these storms in great detail. NWS forecasters leveraged satellite imagery to assess the early development of storms, and analyze clearing ahead of the dryline. Storm development in southwest Kansas, within the Dodge City, KS county warning area, is captured in GOES-East 1-min VIS/IR Sandwich Imagery (Fig 7).
From SPC Mesoscale Discussion in the early PM of 3/24: “Visible imagery shows substantial high-based convection forming near and behind the dryline, which currently extends from far southwest KS across the TX Panhandle and South Plains. This area is within a deep-layer steep lapse rate plume.”
From NWS Dodge City, KS in the early PM of 3/24: “Satellite imagery continues to show high base storms forming along and behind a dryline, which currently is located across far southwest Kansas. Clearing and heating is occurring ahead of this dryline which will help destabilize the atmosphere as we head into the late afternoon hours.”
Bill Line, NESDIS/STAR