The 1991 Interstate 5 dust storm was a

dust storm A dust storm, also called a sandstorm, is a meteorological phenomenon common in arid and semi-arid regions. Dust storms arise when a gust front or other strong wind blows loose sand and dirt from a dry surface. Fine particles are transp ...

which occurred on November 29, 1991, along Interstate 5 (I-5) north of the city of

Coalinga Coalinga ( or ) is a city in Fresno County and the western San Joaquin Valley, in central California about 80 miles (128 km) southeast of Salinas. It was formerly known as ''Coaling Station A'', ''Coalingo'', and ''Coalinga Station''. Th ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. The storm caused a 104-vehicle accident on the highway which killed 17 people and injured 150.

Background

The

San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven ...

, in which Coalinga is located, is a major agricultural region of California. The region had historically suffered from dust storms; the

Great Bakersfield Dust Storm of 1977 The Great Bakersfield Dust Storm of 1977 (also known as the Southern San Joaquin Valley Dust Storm) was a severe dust storm in the Southern San Joaquin Valley, California. It started in the late evening on December 19, 1977 and ended in the aftern ...

occurred in a different part of the valley, and a series of smaller dust storms killed seven people in crashes on the same section of Interstate 5 in 1978. At the time of the accident, the valley was undergoing its sixth year of a serious

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

; as a result, its rainy season had not yet begun, creating unusually dusty conditions. Fields near the crash site had been left

fallow Fallow is a farming technique in which arable land is left without sowing for one or more vegetative cycles. The goal of fallowing is to allow the land to recover and store organic matter while retaining moisture and disrupting pest life cycl ...

during the planting season; as a result, they were covered in dust from plowing, but did not have crops to block the spread of the dust.

The storm

High winds and blowing dust were reported throughout central California on November 29, 1991, both in the San Joaquin Valley and the

Salinas Valley The Salinas Valley is one of the major valleys and most productive agricultural regions in California. It is located west of the San Joaquin Valley and south of San Francisco Bay and the Santa Clara Valley. The Salinas River, which geologically ...

. A

weather station A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for measuring atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasts and to study the weather and climate. The measurements taken include tempera ...

Naval Air Station Lemoore Naval Air Station Lemoore or NAS Lemoore is a United States Navy base, located in Kings County, California, Kings County and Fresno County, California, Fresno County, California, United States. Lemoore Station, California, Lemoore Station, a censu ...

, the closest one to the crash site which tracked wind and visibility statistics, measured wind gusts up to and visibility as low as . In some parts of the valley, including along I-5, narrow plumes of dust made local visibility conditions even worse than those measured. Accident victims described the rapid onset of near zero visibility conditions, and California Lieutenant Governor Leo McCarthy reported the presence of winds in a briefing the day after the accident.

The accident

November 29 was the Friday after

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden ...

in 1991, and traffic on I-5 was heavier throughout the day as a result. Around 2:30 PM local time, the low visibility on the highway caused a series of chain reaction accidents roughly north of Coalinga. The accidents mainly occurred in five groups spread across of highway; while one 20-car pile-up occurred in the northbound lanes, the remainder of the crashes were in the southbound lanes. In total, 104 vehicles were involved in the accident, including 93 cars and 11

semi-trailer truck A semi-trailer truck, also known as a semitruck, (or semi, eighteen-wheeler, big rig, tractor-trailer or, by synecdoche, a semitrailer) is the combination of a tractor unit and one or more semi-trailers to carry freight. A semi-traile ...

s. of I-5 was closed for a day following the accident. 17 people died in the accident, and an additional 150 people were injured. Several vehicles caught fire, which contributed to the casualties; two bodies were burned so badly that they could not be identified in the aftermath of the crash. The dust storm also impeded the emergency response to the accident; a fire truck and an ambulance were involved in separate collisions while attempting to reach the accident site. Nonetheless, first responders were able to access the remote site within half an hour of the crash. According to the

California Highway Patrol The California Highway Patrol (CHP) is a state law enforcement agency of the U.S. state of California. The CHP has primary patrol jurisdiction over all California highways and roads and streets outside city limits, and can exercise law enforcem ...

, the crash was the deadliest accident caused by a dust storm in state history. A report in the '' Deseret News'' described it as the largest vehicle crash in then-recent history in terms of the number of vehicles involved.

References

{{Authority control Dust storms Interstate 5 Weather events in the United States 1991 natural disasters in the United States Natural disasters in California Road incidents in the United States History of Fresno County, California 1991 road incidents November 1991 events in the United States