The Kansas Highway Road, which was killed 8 due to an indiscriminate dust storm like one of the thirties of the last century

A storm of wind sweeps the naked soil, kicking enough dirt and dust to reduce the vision to nearly zero, and for drivers, the dirt storm seems to not appear from anywhere.

These conditions led to accumulation on the 70th highway last week in West Kansas, which includes dozens of cars and trucks thatShe left eight dead people. The blindness of blindness also prompted the transport department in New Mexico to close the highway of 25 Colorado border to the southwest to Las Vegas, New Mexico.

The foggy or shaded sky of dust called the “dust bowl” in the thirties of the twentieth century, when millions of tons of farms buried in the soil and towns wrapped through the major plains. Less storms occur every year, especially in the western United States, especially when agricultural lands have not yet been planted in the spring. Some scientists are concerned that many car drivers do not take them seriously.

“We have a very low level of public awareness of the dust storm and the damage it can cause,” said Daniel Tong, associate professor of chemistry in the atmosphere at George Mason University, who is among the authors of the 2023 paper about the storm death.

Dirt storms have a date of causing deaths

Judland’s High Plains Museum displays a picture of a tractor buried in vaginal soil in the thirties of the twentieth century, a reminder of the consequences of severe drought across the major plains that came after the cultivation that destroyed the original herbs.

Jeremy Martin, the meteorologist in the weather service responsible there, said Friday near Godland was the first in the area in a dirt storm since 2014.

But they came after less than a month after they left 11 cars on I-25 people killed three people, with heavy dust were martyred as a worker, according toTo Albuquerque Tv’s Krqe.Likewise, a dirt storm on the I-55 between St. Louis and Speringfield, Illinois, in 2023 led toFatalInvolve dozens of vehicles.

In 1991, 17 people died in an accident that included more than 100 vehicles on I-5 in the Saint-Joquin Valley in California, blame the escape of dust.

Tong and four authors participating in their published paper in 2023 concluded in the US Meteorological Association’s bulletin that he was there.232 deathsFrom “Windblown” from 2007 to 2017, much higher than the number recorded by the data of the National Assembly of Oceanic and Air Country.

In January,He and four colleagues concluded that the economic damage caused by wind and dust erosion is four times higher than the previously calculated and more than 154 billion dollars per year.

A cold front that carries dust across West Kansas

Martin said that the cold front moved through the accumulated area after it was warm and dry for six hours. The winds, which reached 70 miles per hour (113 km per hour), kicked the dust that became trapped on the cold front.

“This is when you get this classic wall of dust,” he said.

The authorities said that with dust plucking cutting visibility on the road to nearly scratch, drivers slowed, causing collisions.

A spokesman for the Kansas Highway patrol said that a preliminary investigation found that 71 vehicles were involved. The aerial photos showed at least 10 were half.

“It was difficult to keep your eyes open abroad because there was a lot of dust in the air,” said Jeremy Martin, the national meteorologist in Godland. “It is a kind of blame to breathe in it.”

Similar circumstances in eastern Colorado pushed Colorado to warn drivers: “zero vision due to strong winds and dirt.”

“You cannot see,” said Jerry Burkhardt, head of fire and emergency services in Lamar, Colorado. “The best thing to do is get out of the road in a parking lot or something like this.”

Lack of vision is not the only problem

Martin said it is difficult to know how thick dust is far from a distance, so car drivers do not know that they will not be able to see him until they are in it.

Weather experts also said that some tips for car drivers in the dirt storm are not intuitive. Michael Anand, the meteorologist NWS in Albukirk, said that car drivers should withdraw from the road as safe as possible, extinguish all the lights and not to use their high symptoms.

Martin said: “You do not want people to think behind you that you are going on the way.” “This light from your tail light may be the only thing they can see. They think that the road suddenly bends.”

Tong said that the strong winds make cars more difficult to control, and the dirt storm stomach on the road with delicate molecules that slow down, and panic drivers.

He said that dirt storms are very widely scattered in all parts of the United States that countries should test potential drivers of what to do in a dirt storm on licensing exams.

“This may be, in fact, a very easy way to educate drivers,” he said.

This story was originally shown on Fortune.com