News - Blogs - Dust storms tornadoes and droughts oh my with photos

Dust storms, tornadoes and droughts, oh my (with photos)
Published: 10/20/2011 7:00 AM
Last Modified: 10/20/2011 10:00 AM

Back in July, a dust storm known as a "habub" or "haboob" rolls into downtown Phoenix. Another dust storm reportedly hit west Texas this week. AMANDA LEE MYERS/AP File Photo

I have just seen this week's U.S. Drought Monitor report and I'm afraid it's not good news.

More on that later. First, a count-your-blessings-Oklahoma update on severe weather from other parts of the country:

Remember back when I shared info and images on Arizona's haboob, aka dust storm in July? Here is that entry. It happened again, this time in west Texas.

According to the Associated Press, more than 70 mph winds, restricted visibility in a 5-mile range around Lubbock and an 8,000-foot-high rolling dust cloud on Monday afternoon into the early evening.

In addition, Lubbock International Airport evacuated the tower and direct air traffic from a backup center... on the tower's ground floor. Toppled trees, lost shingles off roofs and even an overturned cargo plane were reported, according to the AP.

"It was pretty spectacular. Everything just turned black," a Lubbock city spokesman told the AP.

"It went from light to dark, just like that," said Lubbock convenience store clerk Alma Williams. "I've never seen anything like it. It really scared me."

Locals and one of my editors here said this storm was reminiscent of the Dust Bowl photos of the late 30s. Here's some images from then and now so you can judge yourself:

(Photo credit: Traffic moves through a dust storm which cast a brown pall over downtown Lubbock, Texas on Monday. WALT NETT/AP Photo/The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)

(Photo credit: A dust storm approaches Spearman, Texas, in this April 14, 1935, file photo provided by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration from the Historic Nation Weather Service Collection. AP Photo/NOAA Historic National Weather Service Collection)

Here is a video that someone took from Texas Tech University campus:

Next, a tornado in south Florida hit late Tuesday, leaving a two-mile long trail of damage, peeling roads and tossing cars.

According to the Associated Press, it had a preliminary rating of EF2 as of Wednesday. Here are some images:

(Photo credit: Harold Wilson inspects his Sunrise, Fla. neighborhood Wednesday after a possible tornado damaged more than two dozen homes in the area. J. PAT CARTER/AP Photo)

(Photo credit: The garage door sits on a car in Sunrise, Fla. Wednesday after a possible tornado damaged more than two dozen homes in the area. J. PAT CARTER/AP Photo)

(Photo credit: The roof of a Sunrise, Fla. home sits in the pool early Wednesday after a possible tornado damaged more than two dozen homes in the area. J. PAT CARTER/AP Photo)

(Photo credit: Sunrise, Fla. Mayor Michael Ryan, right, comforts Yom-Tov Assidon Wednesday, after the two toured Assidon's storm damaged home. J. PAT CARTER/AP Photo)

Here is a video:

While the damage is nothing to be envious of, this might make some of us Oklahomans jealous: The AP reports that it's been raining in south Florida since this weekend and is expected to continue. BUT, there's also the threat of possible flooding and lingering storms.

Now, as promised, the state drought report. Once again, I have spliced together the previous weeks that I had saved to my computer somehow and tried to group them together. Sorry in advance:

As you can see, while some areas of the state showed slight improvement, Tulsa County is mostly back in the bright red zone, which is D3, extreme drought. Not as bad as dark red (D4, exceptional drought), not as good as orange (D2, severe drought), so we're caught in the middle again.

And the state's drought woes continue another week, alas.

However, Oklahoma is clearly not the only state suffering from weather issues lately.

Be safe!

-- Althea Peterson

Reader Comments

Show: Newest First

Learn About Our Comment Policy

To post comments on tulsaworld.com, you must be an active Tulsa World print or digital subscriber and signed into your account.

To sign in to your account, go to tulsaworld.com/signin.
To activate your print subscription for unlimited digital access and to post comments, go to tulsaworld.com/activate.
To purchase a subscription, go to tulsaworld.com/subscribe.

Almanac

Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec

	Temperature		Precipitation
Date	High Temp	Low Temp	Total	Month to date	Historical average
1	44°	16°	0	0.00	0.05
2	59°	24°	0	0.00	0.11
3	57°	33°	0	0.00	0.16
4	68°	37°	Trace	0.00	0.21
5	69°	29°	0	0.00	0.26
6	66°	33°	0	0.00	0.32
7	59°	38°	0.05	0.05	0.38
8	51°	34°	0	0.05	0.44
9	44°	36°	0.01	0.06	0.51
10	62°	37°	0.07	0.13	0.57
11	54°	28°	0	0.13	0.64
12	44°	30°	0.25	0.38	0.70
13	55°	40°	0.01	0.39	0.76
14	°	°			0.83
15	°	°			0.89
16	°	°			0.95
17	°	°			1.02
18	°	°			1.09
19	°	°			1.16
20	°	°			1.23
21	°	°			1.31
22	°	°			1.38
23	°	°			1.46
24	°	°			1.53
25	°	°			1.61
26	°	°			1.69
27	°	°			1.77
28	°	°			1.85

TEMPERATURE

RAINFALL

SNOWFALL

Weather World

Follow Jerry Wofford on Twitter for updates during severe weather conditions.

Tulsa weather milestones of 2013 (as of Feb. 12)

Highest temperature: 70 on Jan. 11 (Record: 115 on Aug. 15, 1936)
Lowest temperature: 15 on Jan. 16 (Record: Minus-16 on Jan. 22, 1930)
Hottest month (average): 40.5 degrees in January (Record: 91.7 degrees on July 1980)
Coldest month (average): 40. 5 degrees in January (Record: 21.7 in January 1918)
Most snowfall (day): 0.1 of an inch on Feb. 12(Record: 13.2 inches on Feb. 1, 2011)
Most snowfall (month): 0.1 of an inch in February(Record: 22.5 inches in February 2011)
Most rainfall (day): 0.91 of an inch on Jan. 29 (Record: 9.27 inches on May 26-27, 1984)
Most rainfall (month): 1.54 of an inch in January (Record: 18.18 inches on September 1971)
Highest wind speed: 30 mph on Jan. 30
Previous day with any rain: Feb. 12
Previous day with 1 inch or more of rain: Oct. 17, 2012
Previous day with any snow: Feb. 12
Previous day with freezing temperatures: Feb. 12
Read regular updates on Oklahoma's unpredictable weather and learn more about meteorology from the Tulsa office of the National Weather Service.

>> Visit the main weather page
>> Send us your weather photos
>> Meet the forecasters

Contributors
Staff Writer Althea Peterson started writing for the Tulsa World in March 2007 after previous stops at the Norman Transcript in 2006 and the Oklahoma Gazette in 2005. She followed her older brother from rural Wisconsin (with a public school that never seemed to call snow days) to the University of Oklahoma, but did not follow his pursuit to study meteorology. However, she tries to find as many opportunities to report on the weather as possible.

Staff Writer Jerry Wofford came to the Tulsa World in 2010 from The Manhattan Mercury in Manhattan, Kan. Originally from western Arkansas and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Jerry has lived in Tornado Alley his entire life and is one of those people who goes outside when the sirens go off.

Subscribe to this blog

Temperature
High Temp:	(Example: 45)
Low Temp:	(Example: 45)
Temperature Date:	(Example: 1/1/2011)

Precipitation
Total:	(Example: '.01)
Month to date:	(Example: '.01)
Normal month to date:	(Example: '.01)

2/2013	1/2013	12/2012	11/2012	10/2012	9/2012
8/2012	7/2012	6/2012	5/2012	4/2012	3/2012
2/2012	1/2012	12/2011	11/2011	10/2011	9/2011
8/2011	7/2011	6/2011

Your bookmark will appear on your Profile page. Please give it a title, and short description so that visitors to your page will understand where the bookmark leads.
Bookmark Title :

Bookmark Text :