Blood Red Skies Over North Texas! (Video)

The skies over North Texas have become crazy blood red!

Over the DFW Metroplex, in the middle of the day (not even 3PM yet)
I recorded the skies as best I could on my camera. The link to the video is here, but it really doesn't do justice to how incredibly strange the sky looks. It's a 3MB file, so shouldn't choke anyone's PC.

Click Here to see the video

I included as many references as I could to maintain the veritability of the film. I still have the raw raw footage availble if need be, but the raw footage is almost 400 megs.

The only editing I did was to change the size and compression so that it would be small enough to view and download. I didn't touch the color, and included a color test as well as a cable-box timestamp.

Hey thelibra, I'm out here somewhere near dubyas world to the south of you... I took some video as well on a cheap camera because of some family members wanted to see the dust.

At the end of the video when it's pointed up at the sky towards the west one can see how dusty the air really is. I'm in a low valley, I feel sorry for the people on higher ground and in the DFW area as it had a nasty taste to it.

Click Here to see my dusty video
It didn't turn out that good, I think youtube lowers the quality?

On CNN they showed downtown Dallas and it looked something like news out of Iraq.


There have been other dust storms out here, to bad I don't remember the dates. But hey it almost felt like west Texas, although living in the sticks takes away the effect.

Xphiles, looks like right around the last 4/5ths of your video it shows the red sky.

Texas weather has been getting stranger and stranger. We've had snow in the DFW area at least 8 times in the last month or so this year. Up until 2007, it snowed here perhaps once every 3-5 years, if that often.

The red was definitely some sort of dust or other particulate storm, but I've never seen one hit this area before, not like this, and I've lived here around 20 years. What the hell is going on? We don't even have red dirt around here.

I dunno if anyone besides us found this odd, but it's damned peculiar.

I have read some reports of red/orange precipitation in the form of snow around the NW US and it makes me wonder if this isn't connected with dust from comet McNaught??

What do you think of this theory?

Has the local government given an official reason for the dust clouds there?

How could a comet lay out that much dust though?

Wouldn't terrestrial dust be more likely as an explanation?

Might be worthwhile for some members to put out some jars to collect this dust, and then post some shots of it.

Its called a "Front". This particular "Front" is carring redish dust from West Texas. If you lived in San Antonio it would be a once a month thing.

RREELLAAXX....The Aliens are not coming.

You guys haven't been seeing any metallic three legged tripods walking around have you?

Seriously, I have been watching the weather today on the news. There are lots of storms going through the middle of the country. Overall this winter has been strange.

Are you still having this dust storm?

I'm not saying aliens caused it, I'm not sure who got that idea. The title of this thread isn't "aliens attack" nor was it posted in the UFO section, nor did I suggest aliens or UFOs in any way, shape, or form, so kindly keep the snide comments to yourself.

I'm just saying, it's been crazy weather this year in this area. Anyway, according to the news, the red dust was from southern Oklahoma, and got so bad that visibility was reduced to a quarter-mile. Over 500 flights were cancelled, and over 5,000 passengers were stranded at DFW airport.

Oh, and Royal76, what's normal for someplace 400 miles away is not neccessarily normal here. In 20 years I've never seen this happen here.

Hey guys, the dust storm came through here as well. It came through with the Dry Line. I knew it was coming hours before it hit. Weather is my forte. I have some footage, but will have to edit before posting as it was not made for public viewing, I was out with my family. It moved out just as quickly as it came through. It was very dusty though. I could taste the grit in my mouth.

Originally posted by thelibra
nor did I suggest aliens or UFOs in any way, shape, or form, so kindly keep the snide comments to yourself.

Either you have never seen War of the Worlds or you are UFOphobic. Did I just make up a new word?

One thing is certain Libra, you can't take a joke.

Originally posted by Hal9000
Either you have never seen War of the Worlds or you are UFOphobic. Did I just make up a new word?

One thing is certain Libra, you can't take a joke.

I have never seen the new War of the Worlds (hate Tom Cruise), and I am defintely not UFOphobic. I also completely missed the joke, probably due to a combination of not having seen the movie, and the fact that we're communicating via text, so the subtle nuances of expression, inflection, and gestures are lost. Had we been in person, I'm sure I'd be guffawing.

Sorry for the confusion, from the way I read it, a couple of members were implying I was trying to tie a dust storm to an alien invasion in a very unflattering way. Since credibility is everything on ATS, I was quick to take offense.

As far as the joke goes, maybe I should have thrown in a smiley. With all personal semantics aside, the question remains the same.

How's it going down there? Is the dust storm still going, or has it subsided?

I'd say it's dust from the wind storms that have hit the southwest this pass weekend, also in Albq, NM and there was a large fire that burned along the Rio Grande caused by the wind spreading the flames. Perhaps its a combination of smoke and dust.

I was browsing on CNN to find any more updates on this and came across this

Red Dust from Texas to Michigan Dec 16, 2003

Apparently somethink like this has happend before.

This kind of thing isn't really normal here either. They did predict it though, and sure enough it came in. The video lost some quality through editing but still shows good clarity of the impending dust storm. I like how we all happen to have cameras out for the dust storm (three different videos here). Where are all these cameras when the UFO's are out?!?!

Dust Storm

I guess you guys got to see my town without visiting. We had 60 MPH gusts for hours, with no cover crops the wind picked up top soil from the cotton fields. It is a fairly rare occurrence for the gusts to be this strong this long, but I have seen satellite photos of this type of weather before...Sometimes I wish I lived in Seattle!

Very Cool

I was with some clients in east Dallas when the dust came in my god the wind was crazy. We thought we were about to hammered with a nasty storm, but just dust came. It was a very bizarre experience to say the least. We were by White Rock lake and the sun was blocked by at least 50%. I can only relate it to a sand storm i saw in Vegas last year. Dallas has always had crazy weather the old saying here is "if you don't like the weather then wait a few minutes" thats Dallas in a nut shell.


Cheers, Lakewood

Sandstorm from the Permian red beds are dramatic, aren't they?

If you go to Lubbock, we get them some 20+ times a year. The dust will be so thick that it darkens the sky to the point where streetlights come on. Some roads in the outlying areas will be buried under the drifting sands.

You may be misremembering the weather details. We haven't had that much snow this winter, and we've had dust storms like this before. When you become more aware of the weather (a good thing), patterns that are unusual catch your attention.

I was surprised at how "foggy" it looked outside and didn't associate it with a full-blown sandstorm like we used to have in Lubbock.

[edit on 25-2-2007 by Byrd]

Originally posted by Hal9000
How's it going down there? Is the dust storm still going, or has it subsided?

Well, the skies have resumed their normal blue disposition, but my lungs feel like I'm breathing sandpaper now. Guess I was coughing up dust all night.

Originally posted by Byrd
Uhm... how long have you lived in Texas?

Well, I'm 31, was born in Houston, moved to the DFW area when I was 11, and lived a few years (like maybe 3-4) in Austin and a couple years (2-3) in Seattle.

So... 28 years total in Texas, most of it in the DFW area.

Originally posted by Byrd
This is springtime, when we get dust storms.

Ah, but where? That's the key. I know "Texas gets dust storms". It's large enough to have multiple ecosystems. The panhandle, for instance, regularly gets lots of snow each year. Conversely, DFW does not (at least until this year)

A strong front will blow dust from as far away as New Mexico.

In this case, the winds hit the Panhandle, where the dirt is made up of eroded layers of the Permian red bed sands:
www.publishersmarketplace.com...

Originally posted by Byrd
Red sandstorms are uncommon in Dallas but not unusual.

Byrd, you know I respect you an awful lot, but speaking as someone who actually lives here, I'm telling you it's a very unusual occurance. Perhaps the greatest clue should be the fact it made all the news channels AND sent at least three of us running for our video cameras.

I'm not sure what our relative level of "commonality" is, but I'd rank it even less common than "those ice storms that shut down a whole city" in terms of frequency. And I've only seen three of those in this area (DFW).

Originally posted by Byrd
If you go to Lubbock, we get them some 20+ times a year. The dust will be so thick that it darkens the sky to the point where streetlights come on. Some roads in the outlying areas will be buried under the drifting sands.

Yeah, um, that's LUBBOCK... it's an entirely different ecosystem, man. 300 miles away.

Originally posted by Byrd
It's perfectly normal for Texas.

Not an accurate assessment, Byrd, there's way too many different ecosystems here. You have to consider the size of Texas. It's larger than most countries. It'd be like you saying "snow is perfectly normal for Texas." Sure, it might be in Lubbock, but when was the last time you heard of snow in El Paso before this year? And El Paso is even closer to Lubbock than Dallas is.

2007 is turning out to be a very strange year in terms of weather for our area, and it sounds like other areas of Texas as well.

(edit: removed Odessa reference)

[edit on 2/25/2007 by thelibra]

Originally posted by thelibra
Byrd, you know I respect you an awful lot, but speaking as someone who actually lives here, I'm telling you it's a very unusual occurance. Perhaps the greatest clue should be the fact it made all the news channels AND sent at least three of us running for our video cameras.

(g) I'm a fellow Texan. Lived here for 43 years. I live here in the Dallas area (have for about 25 years.) Lived in many other areas and travel all over the state, so I know about the different weather patterns and ecosystems. And I've noticed milder duststorms here in Dallas over the years. Not as strong as this, but they've been here.

Found a document from the 1930's that talks about the range and impact of Texas sandstorms that you might find amusing. One of the old photos shows a REAL sandstorm in Big Spring (where we lived for many years). Brought back memories for me! :
docs.lib.noaa.gov...

Another one talks about a duststorm (a bit worse than the one yesterday) here in Dallas in the 1930's:
docs.lib.noaa.gov...

That said, yes, our climate is changing and yes we need to be concerned about it. But what we need to look for is the large patterns and not the single incidents.