Dust storm warning in Hidalgo County threatens I-10 travel near Lordsburg

Blowing dust over Steins turned northwestern Hidalgo County into a no-go zone for highway travel, with the National Weather Service in El Paso issuing a dust storm warning at 5:02 p.m. MDT Wednesday that lasted until 6:30 p.m. MDT. The agency warned of near-zero visibility and damaging winds in excess of 80 mph, and said the danger covered Interstate 10 between the Arizona state line and mile marker 20 at Lordsburg, along with U.S. Highway 70 and State Highway 80.

The warning named Steins, Road Forks and Lordsburg Playa as impacted locations, putting a hard stop on routine trips through the county’s western corridor. Drivers moving freight, commuting across county lines or trying to reach Lordsburg needed to delay travel if possible, and anyone already on the road was better off getting off the highway and waiting than trying to push through the dust. The weather service’s safety message was blunt: do not drive into a dust storm. “PULL ASIDE STAY ALIVE!”

The danger along that stretch has a long and deadly history. New Mexico Department of Transportation says a serious crash on Interstate 10 near Lordsburg in 2014 led it to launch a three-phase dust mitigation program. The agency says the Lordsburg Playa has been tied to more than 40 dust-related highway deaths since 1965. From 2012 to the present, NMDOT says there have been 21 deaths, 39 closures of I-10 and 120 dust events.

NMDOT also says Interstate 10 near the Lordsburg Playa was closed 27 times from January 2014 to June 2017 because of blowing dust, with 10 of those closures coordinated with the Arizona Department of Transportation. That record is why dust warnings in this part of Hidalgo County carry immediate consequences for travelers: they can mean delayed school pickups, interrupted freight movement and a sudden shutdown of the main east-west route through Lordsburg.

The New Mexico Environment Department says windblown dust becomes a serious health and safety problem when high winds lift large amounts of dust from dry, loose, exposed soil. The agency says high winds are most common in southern New Mexico during the spring, a pattern that keeps the Lordsburg area on alert whenever strong winds sweep through the region.