Blowing dust and gustnadoes cause issues as storms hit the Plains with powerful winds

AccuWeather

Severe thunderstorms are blowing across the High Plains on June 24, kicking up huge clouds of dust as damaging winds arrive.

Transcript

00:00Meteorologist and storm chaser Tony Labeck, he's joining us right now from Fort Morgan in Colorado.

00:05And Tony, it looks like you've been on the storm of the day so far.

00:10Yeah, and that's not really saying a whole lot here.

00:13We were on the storm when it kind of birthed itself there south of Denver.

00:17It's been moving northeast across the eastern plains.

00:21It's been bringing a lot of wind.

00:22We've seen a wind gust in Wiggins where I was at when the storm came through.

00:26Measured at 64 miles per hour.

00:28Right now we are eastbound on I-76.

00:31You're looking at much more tranquil conditions than what we were dealing with earlier

00:35as some very, very heavy rain, torrential rain.

00:38Had a lot of people pulled over on the side of the interstate.

00:40A little bit of hail mixed in, but it's been the wind and the torrential rain that has been the story.

00:44We talk about wind out here in the eastern plains.

00:47We talk about blowing dust.

00:48We'll show you some of the video as this storm was working its way from I-70 to I-76,

00:53the two interstates here in eastern Colorado.

00:55A lot of what we call gustnadoes, little kind of spin-ups on the leading edge of storms.

01:01These are non-tornadic, kind of think of them as dust devils, but they're associated with thunderstorms,

01:06but do not have the power or the potency that a landspout tornado, kind of a weaker tornado,

01:12or even a major tornado would have.

01:13So these are more visually impressive than anything else, but a lot of blowing dust on the leading edge of this,

01:19which has reduced visibility on a lot of the state and U.S. highways kind of in the region.

01:23So that would include U.S. Highway 34, 36, State Highway 52 and 79, all those highways there east and northeast of Denver.

01:32I've had visibility issues for sure.

01:34We've seen emergency crews wandering around occasionally at times.

01:37I haven't heard of any significant reports, but again, we've had some wind gusts that have peaked over severe criteria.

01:44Typically, we look at over 58 miles per hour for that to occur, and that is exactly what we've seen with this storm here.

01:52Severe thunderstorm warning does include the Fort Morgan metro area, so Fort Morgan Wiggins brush for 60-mile-per-hour winds.

02:00The hail, small hail generally, has been less than penny size.

02:03We haven't seen any significant hail, which really was the biggest concern heading into today.

02:07But folks on I-76 are certainly going to have some issues there, particularly between Wiggins and Brush,

02:14as kind of a complex of storms is now sitting over.

02:16Also starting to get some concern for the potential for street flooding.

02:20A lot of standing water in areas between Fort Morgan and Brush was certainly an issue further back to the west.

02:26So that's also going to be another issue here.

02:29As I'm making this turn here behind me, one of the overpasses, folks, don't sit under overpasses.

02:34There are about four or five vehicles underneath there.

02:36Fortunately, they're not blocking traffic, but typically once you start getting vehicles piled up under the overpasses,

02:42then you start to see more and more.

02:43So, again, severe thunderstorm warning here for this storm, 60-plus-mile-per-hour winds.

02:47We've seen a 64-mile-an-hour wind gust, Damian, earlier with this in Wiggins.

02:52So travel is going to be extremely hazardous here between, say, Fort Morgan and later on up toward the Sterling area.

02:57All right, storm chaser and meteorologist Tony Laubach will check with you coming up

03:02because this is going to be a pretty potent storm there.

03:04It's moving north of Fort Morgan and up the highway here across this region.

03:08But let's go ahead and take a live look here at Omaha and Nebraska.

03:11And you can see this is going to be one of the areas we're watching out for severe weather to develop here

03:14as we head throughout this evening and as we head throughout tonight.

03:17But overall here as we zoom out, you can see that the majority of the storms that we are tracking

03:21are going to be right now for the most part across parts of the high plains from Colorado down through New Mexico.

03:26Multiple flood warnings in effect right now for areas in New Mexico.

03:30No flood warnings in Colorado right now.

03:32But in addition to that, we are showing you Omaha.

03:34There's some storms in the region right now.

03:36For the most part, none of the storms in Kansas, for example, are severe.

03:39But they are going to be packing a pretty good punch.

03:41So we will be watching out for that potential.

03:43And looking at the lightning intensity, some of these storms are starting to produce a lot more lightning,

03:48which lightning is normally a good indicator on the overall health and maturity of a storm.

03:53So if a storm, if you're seeing increasing lightning values for a storm,

03:57that normally is indicative of the storm intensifying and maturing.

04:01So we're going to be watching out for that trend overall.

04:04But let's go ahead and show you an updated look at our AccuWeather exclusive storm zone.

04:07And as we head into this evening, you can see that the highest potential of severe weather

04:11is going to be across the high plains.

04:12So that orange shaded area, that is going to be a level two on our AccuWeather risk impact scale.

04:17So this is what we're mainly watching out for that highest potential of severe weather.

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