Strong northwest winds on October 18th 2012 kick-up dust

Strong northwest winds kick-up widespread dust across the region

Deep low pressure over the upper Mississippi Valley created very strong northwest winds over the plains on Thursday October 18th. Wind speeds across Kansas were generally in the 45-55 mph range with some gusts over Nebraska exceeding 60 mph! Below is a list of the strongest wind gusts across the area covered by the National Weather Service Office in Wichita:

Location	County	Peak Gust(mph)
4 E Matfield Green	Chase	56
Russell Airport	Russell	52
Salina Airport	Saline	51
3 WSW Belle Plaine	Sumner	50
Hutchinson Airport	Reno	49
Kingman & Great Bend Airports	Kingman/Barton	48
Wichita Mid-Continent Airport	Sedgwick	47

Images

Visible satellite image from around 2 pm showing the band of dust stretching from sw Nebraska into north-central Oklahoma

Visible satellite image from around 6 pm showing the band of dust stretching from sw Nebraska into nw Arkansas

Afternoon picture from downtown Wichita. Picture taken by Alex Laugeman

Afternoon picture taken of the Wichita Mid-Continent Airport