West Texas Blowing Dust December 14, 2008

• Satellite Animation - West Texas
• Satellite Animation - Lubbock True Color (from UT CSR)
• Satellite Animation - El Paso True Color (from UT CSR)
• Satellite Image 11:25 am CST - West Texas False Color (from UT CSR)
• Satellite Image 11:08 am CST - West Texas True Color (from UT CSR)
• Satellite Image 2:26 pm CST - West Texas True Color (from UT CSR)
• Satellite Image 2:26 pm CST - West Texas True Color (from NASA)
• Satellite Image 2:26 pm CST - West Texas False Color (from UT CSR)
• Satellite Image 11:09 am MST - El Paso True Color (from UT CSR)
• Satellite Image 12:09 pm CST - Lubbock True Color (from UT CSR)
• Satellite Image 12:09 pm CST - Midland True Color (from UT CSR)
• El Paso Winds Aloft
• El Paso Winds Aloft Mid-day

Strong gusty southwesterly winds caused blowing dust in parts of northern Mexico, New Mexico, and West Texas on Sunday, December 14th.   Wind gusts as high as 73 miles per hour were reported in the El Paso area at the Skyline Park Continuous Ambient Monitoring Station (CAMS) 72.   The most intense measured blowing dust was in Lubbock and Hereford, where airport measurements reported visibility as low as one mile.

There were no PM10 measurements in the areas where visibility reports and satellite imagery indicated the most intense dust plumes, but estimates of the PM10 based on PM2.5 and visibility measurements at Lubbock indicate that the PM10 daily average was probably close to the low end of Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups, on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Air Quality Index (AQI) scale.   The highest measured PM2.5 daily average was 17.2 micrograms per cubic meter at Lubbock CAMS 325 and rated as "Moderate" on the AQI.

Some airport minimum visibility and peak wind gust observations are shown below: