An area of low pressure over the U.S. Southwest began to collide with humid air flowing north on March 14, 2025.
An area of low pressure over the U.S. Southwest began to collide with humid air flowing north on March 14, 2025. The combination powered a destructive weather front that unleashed a chaotic weekend of winds, thunderstorms, hail, dust, and wildfires as the front pushed east through several U.S. states.
Dust streamed northeast across Texas and Oklahoma behind a line of thunderstorms when the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) on the NOAA-21 satellite captured this image on March 14, 2025. Amidst the blanket of dust, smoke plumes are visible streaming from wildland fires burning near several towns in Oklahoma, including Camargo, Iconium, Langston, Leedey, Maramec, Merrick, Orlando, Pawhuska, and Stillwater.
In Oklahoma, hurricane-force winds gusted up to 85 miles (137 kilometers) per hour, triggering a massive dust storm and fanning fast-moving grass fires that caused the state’s governor to declare a state of emergency in 12 counties. The high winds and fires damaged more than 400 homes and structures, including at least 70 homes in Stillwater that were destroyed. The extreme weather also caused tens of thousands of power outages and triggered deadly traffic accidents.
Read more at NASA Earth Observatory
Image: NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using VIIRS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE, GIBS/Worldview, and the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS).
