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NASA » Washington Dust Storm
Dust Storm Over Eastern Washington
An October 4, 2009 satellite image released by NASA's Earth Observatory.
| A large dust storm blowing over eastern Washington on October 4th, 2009. Image credit Jeff Schmaltz, NASA / Earth Observatory |
| Location of this incredible dust storm on October 4th, 2009. |
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Washington Dust Storm
Visibility dropped to zero in parts of eastern Washington on October 4, 2009, as
a large dust storm blew through. This image of the storm was captured by the Moderate
Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
on NASA’s Terra satellite shortly after noon
(Pacific Daylight Time). According to local news, the storm brought strong winds gusting
to 43 miles per hour in places that propelled the dust across the southeast corner of the
state. After numerous multi-vehicle accidents, sections of Interstate 90 near the town of
Moses Lake and several local roads had to be closed for several hours.
A thick, rippling plume of dust runs northeast to southwest through the
center of the image. Dust stretches as far south as the cities of Pasco
and Kennewick, which sit on opposite banks of the Columbia River. In
the north, the dust seems to rise primarily from the pale golden
squares of fields farmed using dryland agriculture, a common practice
in arid eastern Washington. The dryland fields are larger and less
colorful than the bright green and gold fields of irrigated agriculture
near the Columbia and Snake Rivers in the center of the image.
Dust Kicked Up from Fallow Fields
Dryland farmers rely entirely on rainfall to sustain their crops, and
as a result, do many things to preserve moisture in the soil. Some of
these practices—leaving a field fallow after harvest to allow water to
build in the soil for a year or covering the field with dry soil to prevent underlying
moisture from evaporating—make dryland agriculture very prone to dust storms. These fields
are likely either fallow or newly planted, probably with winter wheat, a common dryland
crop in eastern Washington.
The dust storm persisted for several hours and was still visible when Aqua MODIS flew over the
region at 2:00 p.m. local time. The Terra MODIS image shown here is available in multiple
resolutions from the MODIS Rapid Response System.
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey and Holli Riebeek.
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