Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Feb. 28 -

Today looks more promising for high winds with the NWS forecasts with winds of 21 and 26 mph, with gusts as high as 37 mph. Below are the RUC winds at 21 UTC (2 pm) today from the 15UTC model run. Winds have already picked-up this morning with the winds at the Las Cruces airport at 9:55 am at 33 mph from the west with a gust of 40 mph.
The AQI forecast shows moderate air quality over our region.
Dust plumes are showing up in the satellite imagery. Best seen is the dust plume from White Sands. This morning's MODIS image from Terra (image from NASA Lance website) shows the dust plume west of Cd. Juarez and blowing toward the northeast. Sunland Park, Cd. Juarez, and El Paso were directly in this plume.
 PM10 at the Sunland Park City Yard station at 11am was 1746 µg/m3 and PM2.5 at 104 µg/m3 with 11 m/s winds from the WSW.  

At 1pm I can see windblown dust in Las Cruces looking west from my office. The sky is also turning a characteristic milky white during these storms.

No comments:

Post a Comment