NWS Lubbock Local Weather Events

Strong Outflow Winds and Blowing Dust Across the South Plains on June 22nd, 2006

Photograph of the wall of dirt associated with the thunderstorm outflow. This picture was taken near the town of Lamesa, about 50 miles south of Lubbock. Photo courtesy KCBD Television.

Thursday afternoon, a large outflow boundary moved southwest across the central and western portions of the South Plains and produced strong winds and areas of blowing dust. The blowing dust lowered visibilities to near zero along U.S. Highway 82 in northeast Terry County, and contributed to multiple car accidents, resulting in a fatality and several injuries.

This picture shows the reduced visibility in Brownfield when the outflow went through.

Picture from the traffic accident on US 62/82.

Picture from the traffic accident on US 62/82.

The pictures above show the reduced visibility in Brownfield when the outflow went through and also two scenes from the traffic accident on US 62/82.

Below is an image from the National Weather Service Doppler radar located at the Lubbock Airport. The image shows the leading edge of the thunderstorm outflow (labeled "haboob").

Graphical depiction of the radar and some explanation of how the haboob was generated.

Haboob comes from the Arabic word for wind and is used to describe sand and dust storms across the world. In addition to the accidents, this haboob uprooted trees, damaged roofs, and caused numerous power outages from downed power lines. Measured wind gusts were generally in the 50 to 70 mph range.