Dust blankets the Phoenix Valley

A weather disturbance dropped into Arizona from the north late Wednesday night into Thursday, resulting in strong gusty winds and blowing dust across Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and the northern portion of Mexico. Satellite (below) shows dust streaming southeast into the Phoenix Valley from as far away as Texas.

This dust resulted in lowered visibility, down to around 6 miles at Phoenix Sky Harbor, and brought poor air quality to some locations across the state, with the Miami and Douglas areas both exceeding the dust (PM-10( health standard on Thursday. In the Phoenix Valley, the highest PM-10 monitors ended up in the Moderate AQI category.

This dust event highlights just how dry conditions are across the region!