NM Border Air Quality Blog

April 30 - Dust storm Irina brings in haze to the border area today

Yesterday high winds lofted dust from the Texas Panhandle as seen from satellite. Below is an image from the VIIRS SPoRT dust product. The pink area clearly identifies the dust that was generated from the storm.

Winds overnight transported some of this dust from the Panhandle to much of New Mexico and the border region. This morning's dust over Las Cruces was transported across west Texas and up toward the Panhandle overnight as the Hysplit plot below shows.

At 8am this morning haze has blanketed Las Cruces and remains in the air through the afternoon. The photo below is looking east toward the Organ Mountains from Las Cruces.

I expect the dust to linger even with a modest wind today.  The plot below shows Hysplit backtrajectories from various locations in the NM and AZ for 3pm this afternoon will continue to bring in haze.

 

As of noon a dust source in Chihuahua that looks to be east of the NM Bootheel is emitting dust. Winds are transporting it in a west northwest direction. Below is a GOES sounder longwave difference image at 12:02pm with the dust showing up in deep red and purple.

By 1pm the Mexican/Bootheel dust plume traveled into Arizona's Chiricahua Mountains and probably impacting I-10. Below is the VIIRS dust product from SPoRT at 1:41pm MDT.

As of 3pm the haze lingers in southern NM but cleared up slightly probably due to daytime mixing and deeper mixed layer. Below is a shot from San Augustine Pass at 2:30pm looking toward the Sacramento Mountains and Tularosa Basin to the east.