The Weather Outside is Sandy

Western North America is well known for its lack of weather.  The Sierras, Cascades, and Rockies all conspire to form a lovely set of rain shadows which only the Gulf of Mexico eventually manages to conquer.  This is not to say that rain never falls out there, just that when it does, it comes and goes quickly for the most part, and is quite refreshing.  In the eastern lands, rain, snow, sleet, hail, hurricanes, tornadoes, humid heat waves, bone-numbing arctic outbreaks happen and sometimes stick around.  The price can be devastating natural disasters that destroy entire towns, while the benefits are often overlooked.  The east is green and pleasant, and also lacks some of the "other" conditions that the west can be threatened with.  Take sand, for example.

Can you see anything?  Neither could I at the time, and this is on an interstate highway.  Yes, you can sort of make out a little bit of ground on the bottom left, and the sky is blue the higher one looks, but other than that, the ground has taken over in a rather chaotic fashion.  When drought happens in the eastern lands, it can be bad, especially for farmers and water tables.  Texas and Louisiana are only now starting to recover from theirs.  When drought happens in the western lands, however, things get really, really bad.  Trees turn into match sticks, even at higher elevations where groundwater persists into the dry spells.  What little soil remains after desperate animals graze away at remaining vegetation is baked in the sun.  The one day, wind comes along, and removes the rest, and takes a bit of sand with it.  The scary thing is, you can see it coming.

Responsibility normally takes over; drivers in these states (especially New Mexico, where these pictures were taken) tend to slow down.  Signs are posted in dusty areas to warn people that visibility might be reduced to zero.  

On the other hand, especially for a person from wetter regions, this can be quite the show.  As seen here at the Nevada-California border at Primm, the sand can whip up in dust devils over a few thousand feet tall.

The funny thing is, at this very same spot in 2008, there actually was a blizzard that dumped a foot of snow on the desert.

Hard to imagine, no?  Maybe I should find those pictures.