When the Wind Wins: Northwest North Dakota Hammered by Dust Storm
Steve Hallstrom
Special to The Farmer
The Watford City golf league was supposed to tee off Thursday for the first round of the 2026 season. Nobody played. You can’t hit a fairway you can’t see.
That about sums up what May 14th looked like across McKenzie County and much of northwest North Dakota, as a ferocious dust storm swept through the region, turning a spring afternoon into something that looked more like the end of the world than the start of golf season.
A High Wind Warning was in effect across the region, and the National Weather Service issued both a Blowing Dust Advisory - later upgraded to a Blowing Dust Warning - as gusts between 40 and 70 mph tore across the landscape, according to the National Weather Service via Fox Weather. Peak wind gusts reached 76 mph in North Dakota, the result of what the weather people called “a strong midlatitude cyclone.” It centered over the prairie provinces of Canada and forced extreme winds across the Northern Great Plains, according to the University of Wisconsin CIMSS Satellite Blog.
For the full story, visit www.watfordcitynd.com and subscribe to the McKenzie County Farmer today!