Texas sandstorm

[oldandslow]

A mild norther rolled down thru the South Plains yesterday. I say mild because the temperature didn't drop a lot. There is a video on MSN today that shows a little of what one of these things looks like. The western edge of the plains extends into New Mexico for about 40 miles here and we got the dirt too but the wind didn't hit 70 mph. You could the wall was darker to the east than it was here before it hit. 70 mph is not that uncommon but it usually happens in the spring. I did lose my roof 2 years ago to 75 mph winds and it was in December.

The video doesn't give you any idea what it is like to be out in one of these things. I was a kid growing up 60 miles south of Lubbock in the late 40s and early 50s and bad sandstorms rolled thru regularly. Weather conditions were drouthy like they are now but didn't cover as large an area but the wall of dirt was something that came in often. Lots of afternoons in the spring it took forever to get home on the school bus. The dirt in the air would be so thick that you couldn't see the road except now and then. Most of the spring storms are from the west-southwest and don't have that wall of dirt as the wind just starts increasing but it's still gets just as nasty. The ones from the north usually blow out much quicker than the westerly ones and that's good.

It's a nice morning today with just a cool breeze.

[powderman]

VIDEO?? POWDERMAN. 

[Old Syko]

Wife and I got stranded at the Lubbock airport a couple years back due to one of these.  Winds reached 90 shortly after noon and you couldn't see more than 50 feet or so if you really strained.  Absolutely took paint off the cars.  Others in the airport complained because they wanted to fly anyway.      Max wind speed for take off is 50 and we waited until it was clearing and the wind was much below max.  I talked to the pilots for a while when we were waiting and let them know WE weren't in that big a hurry.  Turned out, neither were they.

[oldandslow]

VIDEO---Up at the top of MSN under News.

Old Syko, it's easy to tell a car that has spent a year on the South Plains. The chrome has a satinly look instead of being really shiny and the windshields have tiny little stars all over them at night when you look out at the lights because of being sandblasted. The longer they live there the worse they get.

The EPA has actually cited Lubbock in the past for poor air quality during sandstorms. Roswell, NM also. Just examples of how smart government employees are.

[Sourdough]

The wife and I were out riding horseback one afternoon.  North and West of the Whitesands, near the base of the San Andreas Mtns.  Saw the wall of dirt and sand coming.  Rode hard till we got to a nearby windmill with a stock tank.  Stripped the saddles off and dipped the saddle blankets in the water.   Led the horses to a cut bank and crawled as far back under it as we could.  Covered ourselves with the wet blankets and waited it out.  The hard wind only lasted 15 to 20 minutes, but it was a good three hours before we wanted to crawl out from under those blankets.  We were almost buried by the time it slacked up.  Sometime during the wind the horses broke loose.  We found them about two hours later, they were OK, just spooky.  Saw many of those while working out there three years, but none as bad as that one.