Strong winds, full sunshine quickly drying surfaces, and recently tilled agricultural fields combined to create significant blowing dust over much of northern Iowa on Thursday. The featured webcam shot is from an Iowa DOT RWIS webcam near Plainfield (north of Waterloo) and nicely illustrates the driving dangerous associated with blowing dust. Namely, the rapid change from excellent horizontal visibility to something approaching near zero. Even with all of the recent rains, full June sunshine and low humidity can quickly dry an exposed soil surface and away it blows.

Voting:
Good = 15
Bad = 2
Abstain = 2