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Blowing dust across eastern New Mexico and western Texas

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16 Red Visible (0.64 µm) images with plots of Surface Wind barbs (white), Peak Wind gusts (yellow/red) and Ceiling/Visibility/Weather (cyan) from 1516-2341 UTC on 03 March; Interstate highways are plotted in violet [click to play MP4 animation]

5-minute CONUS Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) Visible images (above) showed the strong winds — associated with the passage of a cold front — which produced widespread areas of blowing dust across parts of southern/eastern New Mexico and western/northern Texas on 03 March 2025. This blowing dust caused marked reductions in visibility — leading to closures of Interstates 10 and 25 near Deming KDMN and Las Cruces KLRU in southern New Mexico, in addition to multiple-vehicle accidents near Roswell KROW.

GOES-16 True Color RGB images from the CSPP GeoSphere site (below) provided a more distinct view of the dense blowing dust, which eventually stretched from northern Mexico to far southeast Colorado and far southwest Kansas. Note the plume of blowing sand whose source region was White Sands National Park in southern New Mexico.

GOES-16 True Color RGB images, from 1611 UTC on 03 March to 0001 UTC on 04 March [click to play MP4 animation]

After sunset, GOES-16 Nighttime Microphysics RGB images (below) showed that the leading edge of the airborne dust (highlighted by brighter shades of magenta) advanced as far northward as Nebraska and South Dakota. The Nighttime Microphysics RGB makes use of the 10.3-12.3 µm “Split Window Difference“, which is effective for dust detection.

GOES-16 daytime True Color RGB and Nighttime Microphysics RGB images, from 2331 UTC on 03 March to 1201 UTC on 04 March [click to play MP4 animation]

Categories: Air quality, GOES-16, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images