March 21, 2021 - Chihuahuan Dust over New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico

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   Dust Mexico and Texas
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   Gusty springtime winds turned the skies yellow and beige in mid-March
   2021 across northern Mexico, New Mexico, and west Texas. A strong
   low-pressure system blowing along the Mexico-United States border
   scattered dust in an unusually long-lasting storm.

   Sustained winds of 35 to 45 miles (55 to 70 kilometers) per hour —with
   gusts to 65 (100)—lofted abundant streams of dust from the Chihuahuan
   Desert. The storm lasted nearly eight hours, reduced visibility to
   below a half-mile in some places, and degraded air quality,
   particularly in the El Paso-Juárez metropolitan area. The Moderate
   Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra
   satellite acquired this true-color image of plumes of shifting sand
   across New Mexico, western Texas, and Mexico on March 16, 2021.

   The brightness of White Sands, New Mexico stands out in the north.
   Moving due south, the city of El Paso, Texas sits on the Rio Grande—the
   ribbon of green that serves as a border between western Texas and
   Mexico after passing through the entire state of New Mexico. A swath of
   shifting dust measuring more than 105 miles (170 km) wide and about 200
   miles (322 km) from north to south is easily visible.

   The Chihuahuan Desert has been experiencing drought conditions
   recently, leaving the desert even drier than usual and primed for dust
   storms. Even though the storm was quite expansive, it’s not the size
   that makes this particular dust event notable—it’s the duration. Due to
   the relatively slow passage of windy conditions, El Paso experienced
   dusty weather basically for eight hours nonstop—more than twice as long
   as the historical average for dust events in the city.

   Strong winds can move heavier sand grains tens of miles near the
   ground, while finer grains and dust particles can be carried hundreds
   to thousands of miles. Just this week, particles from a March 13 dust
   storm in northern Mexico and New Mexico mingled with the snow falling
   in Colorado, hundreds of miles to the north.

   Image Facts
   Satellite:  Terra
   Date Acquired: 3/16/2021
   Resolutions:  1km (201.9 KB),  500m (566.3 KB),  250m (367.3
   KB)
   Bands Used: 1,4,3
   Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2021-03-21
 
