A large dust storm swept through Illinois Friday, sparking the first-ever dust storm warning for Chicago as it led to numerous crashes and travel warnings across the state.
So how exactly did it happen?
Strong winds throughout the day brought localized gusts up to 50 to 60 miles per hour.
“We had a severe thunderstorm south of the [Chicago] area… that kicked out what’s that’s called outflow,” Richard Castro, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service told NBC Chicago. “That’s the strong winds out ahead of the thunderstorm that were then surging northward.”
While large-scale brush fires never materialized Friday, the dry conditions in areas not impacted by Thursday’s rainfall combined with the dangerous region-wide winds to create a blowing dust threat.
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“It’s been dryer than average down across the corn belt in the farming areas and this is also the time of year when the fields have been plowed,” he said.
Though dust storms aren’t particularly common in Illinois, the late spring is when they typically occur, with high winds blowing topsoil from recently tilled fields across large distances.
Much of the state’s topography is favorable for the storms, due to large swaths of flat land with few trees and plants, which allow winds to build up momentum at a quicker pace.
But seeing the dust storm reach downtown Chicago wasn’t expected.
Though dust storms have impacted Illinois expressways before, Friday’s event marked a moment of history for the city of Chicago.
“Just making it to Chicago… it’s not common at all to get this,” he said.
Well that was…..something.This marks the second Dust Storm Warning in our office's history. The first was on May 7, 2023. However, that warning was away from the metro area. This was the first Dust Storm Warning that included the city of Chicago.
— NWS Chicago (@NWSChicago) May 17, 2025The last time Chicago experienced a dust storm was in 1934. A similar storm caused a deadly pile-up in suburban counties in the 1980s as well.
But on Friday, visibility dropped down to a quarter mile in some places. Entire buildings disappeared under a blanket of dust.
While it may have been a first, Castro said it was a learning experience.
“If we have anything similar in the not too distant future we know, ‘Hey it can happen,’ in terms of the warnings that we issue,” Castro said.
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