Name: Dust Storm in Arizona, September 16, 2019
Start: 2019-09-16T13:50
End: 2019-09-16T14:30
Location: Arizona

Where it happened

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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 PSR wrote it up.

Isolated monsoon thunderstorms developed across the central deserts during the afternoon hours on September 16th. Some of the storms produced gusty outflow winds in excess of 40 mph; the outflow winds stirred up significant amounts of dust which led to a dust storm near the community of Casa Grande. Shortly after 1400MST a trained spotter in Arizona City, a town just south of Casa Grande, reported a dust storm when visibility lowered to just 200 feet in blowing dust. Another trained spotter 5 miles northeast of Arizona City reported visibility down to one quarter mile in a dust storm. No accidents were reported due to the sharply reduced visibility and corresponding hazardous driving conditions. A Dust Storm Warning was issued for the area at about 1350MST, shortly before the reports were received.

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 Phoenix, AZ wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Sep 16, 10:39 AM MST, 3 hours 11 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Sep 16, 10:39 AM MST, 3 hours 11 minutes before

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In the hours before

Special weather statement, Sep 16, 1:34 PM MST, 16 minutes before

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The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 dust storm. Local standard time, as filed.

Dust Storm, Northwest Pinal County

When: September 16, 1:50 PM MST to 2:30 PM MST
Where: Northwest Pinal County forecast zone
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 32.904, -111.345 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Thunderstorms developed during the afternoon hours across lower desert areas to the southeast of Phoenix on September 16th and some of them produced gustyoutflow winds in excess of 40 mph. The strong winds stirred up dense blowing dust near the communities of Casa Grande and Arizona City, resulting in dust storm conditions. According to a trained weather spotter in Arizona City, at 1412MST a dust storm lowered visibility to around 200 feet near the intersection of West Battaglia Drive and South Tacna Road. A few minutes later another trained spotter located about 5 miles northeast of Arizona City reported a dust storm that lowered visibility to one quarter of a mile. A Dust Storm Warning had been issued for the area at 1349MST and was in effect at the time of the reports. No accidents were reported as a result of the sharply reduced visibility and associated hazardous driving conditions.

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

More

Every storm in Arizona in 2019 Every state in 2019 This day in weather history Warnings in Arizona, September 2019

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 2026-09-30. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 849908.