Regarding a comment I often make about enviro conditions as they relate to automobile maintenance…
http://news.yahoo.com/dust-storm-shuts-down-interstate-northern-okla-214800712.html
Granted, this is a bit worse than normal but it’s not that rare. This area is from 10-20 miles from me as the crow flies.
Ouch! I hope nobody was hurt.
Last I heard, about 15-20 people had been taken to the hospital but I don’t think any are critical.
Many years ago we had a major dust storm and snow storm at the same time. The snow that was falling was brown and basically covered everything with a light layer of mud.
The TV weathermen were calling it “Snud”.
Man, I guess our snowstorms aren’t so bad after all…
No kidding! Our CT storms are light dustings by comparisons.
I’ve lived in several different parts of this country…I’ll take snow over dust-storms, Hurricanes, Tornadoes, and earth-quakes any day of the week.
Wow, I heard about that on the radio.
The worst bit missed my place but it’s been extremely windy and dusty here for the past 4 or 5 days. It creates a haze in the air and dust settles over everything. Wash the car in the evening and by the morning it’s filthy even if not driven.
I’ve been in some dust storms here before but none in which the visibility was 10 feet. There’s been a few with visibility limited to 50 to 100 feet and that’s bad enough. A few years ago a couple of people were killed near where I live when a car crossed the centerline in thick blowing dust and rammed another car head on.
A dust storm hit me and a friend as we were heading out on motorcycles to Sturgis, SD one year. Dust hit us on the outskirts of town, followed by light rain, more dust, more light rain, and finally more dust; the layers of crud continuing to pile up. Within 50 miles we both looked like we had been dragged through a swamp and it had taken us about 1.5 hours to cover that 50 miles.
A convenience store was kind enough to let us use their water hose for an impromptu clothed shower and the 98 degree heat combined with the wind blast dried things out fairly quickly.
Florida has rain storms where the visibility drops to a few feet. All you can do is pull over and wait it out. I recall one at about 7AM when I was on I-95 going to work. The rain was so heavy you couldn’t see even brake lights more than a few feet in front of you.