Early March Dust Storms and Severe Weather
On March 3, 2025, a strong upper-level system brought damaging winds and hurricane-force gusts across the Great Plains. This instigated extreme fire weather conditions for parts of Texas and New Mexico.
These strong winds also kicked up plumes of blowing dust in the southwest US, which were lofted across multiple states in the Central US. An intense dust storm, also known as a haboob, was observed in northern Mexico, New Mexico, and West Texas, causing dangerous travel conditions as visibility was greatly obscured.
On the night of March 3, 2025, a line of severe storms initiated in the southern plains, sweeping across Texas and Oklahoma. Several tornado warnings were issued, while destruction was observed across the region from the high winds associated with the thunderstorms.
On March 4, 2025, the line of storms moved into the southeast US, where widespread damaging winds and a few tornadoes were observed. In New Orleans, Mardi Gras celebrations were under threat of cancellation ahead of the storm threat.
In the wake of the severe storms, strong winds continued to blast across Texas. Dust from West Texas was blown across the state, enveloping major cities like the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex in a thick red haze that appeared to resemble the planet Mars.
These high winds combined with dry air also saw several wildfires break out across South Texas as portions of the Lone Star State were under a extreme fire weather danger.
The strong winds with this system posed another danger in the northern US as blizzard warnings were issued for multiple states ahead of the heavy snow and hazardous travel conditions.
As of March 5, 2025, the large storm system is pushing into the eastern US, where severe weather and winter storm conditions are forecast to impact the East Cost and Midwest states.
For more information, visit the Storm Prediction Center.
Satellite imagery of this event:
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