Dust storm brings low visibility to parts of SoCal

Sandhya Patel Image
Friday, October 7, 2022
Dust storm brings low visibility to parts of SoCal
Dust storm blows through Imperial Valley, California, causing visibility to drop to zero at times.

IMPERIAL COUNTY, Calif. -- A blowing dust advisory was in place for Imperial County as a gust front producing severe winds and reduced visibility moved towards San Diego and Riverside counties Thursday evening, according to Sandhya Patel, a meteorologist with ABC7's sister station KGO-TV.

KGO-TV's Live Doppler 7 tracked the front moving through the area in Southern California that is producing severe thunderstorms.

VIDEO: Timelapse video shows dust storm engulfing parts of SoCal

Timelapse video showed a massive wall of dust blanketing parts of Imperial Valley causing visibility to drop to zero at times.

Sandhya says there have been multiple reports of dust storms and about a dozen of them with the visibility dropping to zero at times.

A Blowing Dust Advisory was in effect until 8 p.m. for parts of Coachella Valley and San Diego County.

"Driving conditions could be hazardous and visibility may drop to a quarter mile or less at times due to the sand and the dust," says Sandhya.

Those conditions are what one driver encountered in the Imperial Valley near the Mexico border. Despite the zero visibility and high winds, there were no reports of any serious crashes.

VIDEO: Driving in a dust storm

It looks like something out of a movie, but video taken in the Imperial Valley near the Mexico border shows what it looks like when you drive through a dust storm.