Heat, high winds, bare fields - all lead to late afternoon dust storms in central Illinois

[May 18, 2017]  LINCOLN - Heat, high winds and bare fields - all led to significant dust storms in central Illinois on Tuesday afternoon. In some wide-open areas where fields lay bare sustained winds of 25 to 35 mph with gusts around 45 mph at times led poor visibilities, sometime zero visibility between 2 and 5 p.m.

Travelers on high speed interstates were most vulnerable to wide-spread, sometimes abrupt dust storms. Numerous accidents were reported. One incident near Springfield on I-72 held tragic consequences where one death was reported in a late afternoon pile-up.

Illinois State Police Troopers recommend if drivers encounter such conditions that they slow down but stay in motion, as opposed to pulling over to the side of the interstate.

As the winds died down in the evening, still some lingering patches could be seen in the distance to the northeast of Lincoln. These photos were taken between 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. as winds subsided.

The views are all near Kruger elevator and Legends Subdivision looking east to north east. The dust clouds were mostly blown off to the east/northeast, but continued strong southwest winds and dark were expected to continue to create some areas of poor visibility overnight.

[Jan Youngquist]