Dust Storm, Southeast Pinal County
- When
- May 30, 5:00 PM MST to 5:30 PM MST
- Where
- Southeast Pinal County forecast zone
- Reported by
- LAW ENFORCEMENT
Dust Storm in Arizona, May 30, 2003
Thunderstorms located over Tucson produce outflow that moved northeast towards Eloy. Eloy police dispatch reported blowing dust along Interstate 10 at 5:00 pm MST with visibility less than a half of a mile.
The toll
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- None recorded
- Crop damage
- None recorded
- Events
- 1
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
What happened
The episode as NWS TWC wrote it up.
Thunderstorms located over Tucson produce outflow that moved northeast towards Eloy. Eloy police dispatch reported blowing dust along Interstate 10 at 5:00 pm MST with visibility less than a half of a mile.
What forecasters said that day
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Tucson, AZ wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at May 30, 2:45 PM MST, 2 hours 15 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, May 30, 2:45 PM MST, 2 hours 15 minutes before
SOUTHEAST ARIZONA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TUCSON AZ 245 PM MST FRI MAY 30 2003 .SYNOPSIS...SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL CONTINUE THIS EVENING AS A MOIST AND UNSTABLE AIRMASS PREVAILS. A GRADUAL DRYING TREND WILL BEGIN SATURDAY. HOWEVER THERE WILL BE A CONTINUED CHANCE OF AFTERNOON AND EVENING SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS MAINLY NEAR THE CENTRAL AND EASTERN MOUNTAINS THIS WEEKEND. .DISCUSSION...KEMX WSR-88D DETECTED SCATTERED MOSTLY LESS THAN 40 DBZ ECHOES EXTENDING FROM THE CHIRICAHUA NATIONAL MONUMENT-S KITT PEAK. ISOLATED MOSTLY LESS THAN 35 DBZ ECHOES WERE NEAR THE RINCONS AND CATALINAS AS WELL AS THE PINALENOS SW OF KSAD. ECHOES WERE MOVING SLOWLY NWWD. DEWPOINTS WERE IN THE UPPER 40S-50S F WHICH WERE NEARLY 2-8 DEGS F HIGHER VERSUS THIS TIME THUR. WATER VAPOR SATELLITE IMAGERY INDICATED CYCLONIC CIRCULATION CENTERED OVER CENTRAL BAJA WITH ANOTHER SMALLER CYCLONIC FEATURE PERHAPS DEPICTING A VORT MAX ROTATING NWD ACROSS NRN SONORA. APPEARS THIS FEATURE IS ENHANCING CONVECTIVE DEVELOPMENT OVER EXTREME NRN SONORA/SE AZ. APPEARS LOCALLY HEAVY RAINS WILL BE POSSIBLE DURING THE NEXT FEW HOURS GIVEN THE SLOW CELL MOVEMENT. ALSO APPEARS BRIEF WIND GUSTS WILL STILL BE POSSIBLE AS OUTFLOWS ASSOCIATED WITH CONVECTION ADVANCE NWWD. WILL REFRAIN FROM MENTIONING HEIGHTENED WORDING IN THE ZONE FORECAST PACKAGE HOWEVER. ACTIVITY EXPECTED TO WANE FAIRLY QUICKLY AFTER SUNSET THOUGH SOME SHOWERS/THUNDERSTORMS MAY LINGER DURING THE EARLY NIGHTTIME HOURS AS ETA/GFS DEPICT DIFFLUENCE ALOFT TONIGHT. A VERY GRADUAL DRYING TREND TO ENSUE ALTHOUGH THE SYNOPTIC PATTERN TO EXHIBIT LITTLE CHANGE AS SE AZ REMAINS BETWEEN THE MID- LEVEL TROUGH OVER BAJA AND HIGH PRESSURE OVER NM. WILL OPT FOR SCATTERED AFTERNOON/EVENING SHOWERS/THUNDERSTORMS E. HAVE ADJUSTED PREVIOUS FORECAST TO INCLUDE ISOLATED SHOWERS/THUNDERSTORMS CENTRAL MOUNTAINS AND MAINTAIN DRY W. GRADUAL DRYING TO CONTINUE SUN AS DEPICTED VIA GFS SOLUTION WITH AFTERNOON/EVENING THUNDERSTORMS MAINLY LIMITED TO NRN GILA/WHITE MOUNTAINS. PER COORD WITH WFO PSR OPTED TO INCLUDE LOW-GRADE POPS WHITE/NRN GILA MOUNTAINS MON AS MID-LEVEL MOISTURE TO CONTINUE. STILL SOME UNCERTAINTY WITH REGARD TO FORECAST DETAIL MID-WEEK. GFS DEPICTS MID-LEVEL RIDGE AMPLIFYING ALONG THE W COAST WITH NWLY FLOW ALOFT OVER THE GREAT BASIN/CENTRAL ROCKIES. HOWEVER H5 LOW IS ALSO DEPICTED VICINITY 30N/120W WITH SLY FLOW OVER FORECAST AREA. FOR NOW WILL OPT FOR DRY SCENARIO AREAWIDE TUE-FRI THOUGH SUBSEQUENT SHIFTS WILL NEED TO MONITOR EXTENDED PERIOD FOR POSSIBLE MENTION OF PRECIPITATION. DAYTIME MAX TEMPS THIS FORECAST PERIOD SHOULD REMAIN NEAR OR SLIGHTLY ABOVE SEASONAL NORMALS FOR EARLY JUN. BF .TWC...NONE.
Hazardous weather outlook, May 30, 7:00 AM MST, 10 hours before
AZZ019-029>035-311400- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TUCSON AZ 700 AM MST FRI MAY 30 2003 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTHEAST ARIZONA .DAY ONE...TODAY NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... WEATHER SPOTTERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO REPORT SIGNIFICANT WEATHER CONDITIONS ACCORDING TO STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES.
Event by event
1 dust storm. Local standard time, as filed.
What these are
- Dust Storm
- Blowing dust that reduced visibility to a quarter mile or less.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
The same day elsewhere
- Tornadoes and Hail in Illinois, May 30, 2003
- High Wind in Iowa, May 30, 2003
- Tornadoes and Hail in Illinois, May 30, 2003
- Hail in Iowa, May 30, 2003
- Tornadoes and Damaging Winds in Wisconsin, May 30, 2003
- Strong Wind in Colorado, May 30, 2003
- High Wind in North Dakota, May 30, 2003
- Flash Flooding and Hail in Colorado, May 30, 2003
- Flooding in Montana, May 30 to 31, 2003
- Damaging Winds in Indiana, May 30, 2003
- Marine Thunderstorm Winds in South Atlantic Coastal Waters, May 30, 2003
- Damaging Winds in Nevada, May 30, 2003
More
Every storm in Arizona in 2003Every state in 2003This day in weather historyWarnings in Arizona, May 2003
Sources
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5359799.