NOAA 21 Captures Dust Moving Across the United States

Early spring 2025 has been an unusually active period for dust storms over the southwestern United States. These storms have had major impacts locally and across the country all the way to the east coast.

The latest storm began in southern New Mexico and southwest Texas on March 18, 2025, darkening the skies over El Paso and nearby cities, snarling traffic throughout the area. In the figure below, a true-color image from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) aboard the NOAA 21 platform is shown on the left, while aerosol index (AI) values measured by the Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) aboard the same platform are overlaid on the right.

Although OMPS was primarily designed to measure atmospheric ozone, it can also detect aerosols such as volcanic ash, dust, and smoke. The AI product is extremely useful for monitoring and tracking the movement of such aerosols because it can detect them over any type of land surface (including ice) and over clouds.

The figures below show the progression of the dust plume during March 19-20, 2025, as the dust plume became entrained in a powerful storm that brought high winds, rain, snow, and tornados across the middle of the country. 

Dust made its way across the Midwest on March 19, where snow on the ground in Iowa took on a brownish tinge.

By March 20, NOAA 21 imagery showed the remnants of the plume strung out across the upper Midwest and along the Atlantic Coast.  

References

Storms Bring a Potpourri of Hazards to the United States (NASA Earth Observatory)

Dusty Inferno Hits Oklahoma (NASA Earth Observatory)