A plot of land along Interstate 10 near San Simon, which was disturbed back in February, was the cause of another closure of the roadway when southwest winds kicked up blowing dust and reduced visibility to near zero. Interstate traffic was rerouted for 110 miles to circumvent the road closure.
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The episode as NWS TWC wrote it up.
A plot of land along Interstate 10 near San Simon, which was disturbed back in February, was the cause of another closure of the roadway when southwest winds kicked up blowing dust and reduced visibility to near zero. Interstate traffic was rerouted for 110 miles to circumvent the road closure.
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 Apr 8, 2:00 PM MST, 50 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Tucson AZ 200 PM MST Sat Apr 8 2017 .SYNOPSIS...Mainly dry conditions will prevail through the end of next week. A weather system moving north of the area will bring strong and gusty winds into this evening. Cooler temperatures are expected behind the system Sunday and Monday. Daytime temperatures will be near normal Sunday and slightly above normal Monday. Much warmer readings will then prevail through the remainder of the work week. Enough moisture could seep into the White Mountains on Wednesday from New Mexico for a slight chance of a thunderstorm. && .DISCUSSION...Breezy to windy conditions currently across southeast Arizona as southwesterly flow aloft increases ahead of a trough of low pressure moving into the Great Basin. GOES-16 visible imagery along with web cams depicts some areas of blowing dust in Cochise County coming off the Willcox Playa which will continue into late this afternoon. The strongest winds will remain to the east of Tucson, especially in Cochise County where winds will be near advisory thresholds. A Red Flag Warning is in effect for many locales east of Tucson through 7 PM. See fire weather discussion below for additional information. As the tail end of the aforementioned trough passes through tonight, a surface cold front will move through the area. This will result in about a 6 to 9 degree drop in high temperatures on Sunday compared to today. A fairly flat zonal flow aloft will continue through the middle of next week with some high clouds from time to time as weak shortwaves traverse through the region. Temperatures will warm back up to well above normal values by Tuesday, then continue through the rest of the week. We'll be watching some lower to mid level Gulf of Mexico moisture across New Mexico that will try sneaking across the border into the White Mountains on Wednesday. We have gone ahead and introduced slight chance PoPs for the highest peaks of the White Mountains. This could be a scenario where a few dry thunderstorms are possible right along the New Mexico border, so this is something we will be monitoring. Otherwise, by Thursday, somewhat stronger southwesterly flow should reassert itself shunting moisture back east into New Mexico with dry weather prevailing into next weekend. && .AVIATION...Valid through 10/00Z. The SWLY winds of 15-25 kts with gusts up to 35 kts at times, mainly S and E of KTUS, will diminish after 09/03z to less than 10 kts. Not as windy during the latter part of the valid period on Sunday afternoon. Otherwise SCT cirrus clouds AOA 20k ft AGL. Aviation discussion not updated for TAF amendments. && .FIRE WEATHER...A Red Flag warning remains in effect until 7 pm this evening across the southeast part of fire weather zone 151 and roughly the southern 2/3rds of zone 152 due to strong gusty southwest winds, very low relative humidity values and a high fire danger. The surface cold front responsible for the winds will push across the area tonight with a somewhat weaker westerly breeze expected Sunday afternoon with wind speeds expected to stay below critical thresholds. Very dry air behind this system with extremely low daytime humidity levels and rather poor overnight recoveries. Dewpoints will be in the single digits across much of the area during the afternoon hours of Monday and Tuesday. A few computer model solutions are suggesting an increase of mainly mid-level moisture from the east on Wednesday that could result in a slight chance of mainly dry high based afternoon and evening thunderstorms, mainly over the White mountains at this time. This will continue to be monitored over the coming days. Winds next week will generally be light for much of the week with the typical afternoon breezes then somewhat stronger winds are likely Friday into next weekend. && .TWC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... Red Flag Warning until 7 PM MST this evening for AZZ151-152. && GL Visit us on Facebook...Twitter...YouTube...and at weather.gov/Tucson
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 dust storm. Local standard time, as filed.
Interstate 10 near San Simon was closed for about four hours due to very low visibility in blowing dust.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Arizona in 2017Every state in 2017This day in weather historyWarnings in Arizona, April 2017
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: 696784.