Intense dust storm precedes severe storms in the central US

AccuWeather

Storm chaser Aaron Rigsby reported live on the afternoon of April 2, as dangerous storms began developing across multiple states.

Transcript

00:00For the latest, we head live to storm chaser Aaron Rigsby.

00:02Now he joins us from Alamo in West Tennessee,

00:06where they're under a tornado watch and a flood watch

00:09this afternoon.

00:10Aaron, getting hit with both of the risks

00:12we've been highlighting.

00:15Yeah, good evening, guys.

00:16I tell you, it's just going to be one of those weeks.

00:18There's no way around it.

00:19We have a PDS, actually flood watch,

00:21issued for Arkansas on top of a PDS, particularly

00:24dangerous situation, tornado watch,

00:26which is the highest caliber of watches

00:28that they can issue on both fronts.

00:30And I tell you, within the last hour,

00:32from a chasing perspective, the storms of interest

00:34have been having a very concerning look, typically

00:37of what we see precursor to a tornado outbreak.

00:40A lot of the storms that have fired out ahead of that line

00:42are taking on that kind of kidney bean shape, which

00:44they're very early in their life cycles,

00:46but they're already showing those kind of hook features

00:49that we look for, which indicates how much wind

00:51shear is up in the upper atmosphere today.

00:53And it puts into perspective just how volatile

00:55the atmosphere is here.

00:57I mean, over such a widespread area,

00:59all the way from southeast Arkansas, clear up to Indiana,

01:02and up into Ohio as well into the overnight hours.

01:06And Aaron, as you were driving throughout the day,

01:09you actually encountered a dust storm as well.

01:14Yeah, that's absolutely correct.

01:15We get fixated a lot with these storm systems

01:17on the immediate tornado and flood threat,

01:19but there's a lot of hidden elements

01:21to these big powerhouse systems.

01:23And this was one of those cases today.

01:25There was anywhere from 40 to 50,

01:27upwards of 55 mile an hour wind gusts.

01:30Now, it kind of went through some

01:31of those drought-stricken areas that

01:33have a lot of that loose topsoil and a lot of the farmers

01:35getting ready for planting season.

01:37And it was carrying that across I-55,

01:40creating absolutely blinding conditions.

01:42Now, this is typically an event that you

01:44would see those pileups start to happen.

01:46Now, thankfully, to my knowledge,

01:47that did not occur today.

01:49However, there were a couple of close calls

01:51where some of that traffic started to slow down.

01:53Some of the traffic behind it didn't see that,

01:54and they really had to slam on their brakes.

01:56And these can come up just all of a sudden,

01:58which we have seen with every single one

02:00of these big systems that have come through here

02:02to start off spring of 2025.

02:04So it's a very hidden danger that folks

02:06need to really recognize if they have to go out

02:08and travel in these conditions.

02:10All right, Storm Chaser Aaron Rigsby,

02:12joining us right now from Alamo in Tennessee.

02:15Thank you so much for that update.

02:16We'll be checking with you periodically

02:17coming up for sure, Aaron.

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