February 20, 2012
In late February 2012, a dust storm in the Texas Panhandle dropped visibility to near-zero, and caused numerous accidents and two deaths, according to news station WJLA. The dust swept from eastern New Mexico through Texas, forming a giant arc north of Lubbock.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this natural-color image on February 20, 2012. The dust is thickest north of Lubbock, but some dust hovers over that city as well.
References & Resources
- WJLA. (2012, February 21). Dust storm big enough to be seen from space over Texas. Accessed February 23, 2012.
NASA images courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Michon Scott.
