The past week of weather in northeast Nebraska threw a number of homes, businesses and events into a tailspin – even delaying the District track meets on Thursday, as spring winds, rain, and some suspected tornado activity whipped through the area.
Thursday afternoon, the Class C and D District track meets were being held in Hartington and Plainview – affecting many athletes from northeast Nebraska, and both were delayed for more than an hour as athletes, fans and coaches were evacuated from both events to take cover during the “haboob” weather.
What started as dark grey clouds, quickly turned into a massive dust storm ahead of the stormfront, followed by torrential rains and tornado speed winds.
The weather event on Thursday was determined to be very similar, and was then called a “haboob” – according to Wikipedia a “type of intense dust storm on an atmospheric gravity current, also known as a weather front. Haboobs occur regularly in dry land area regions throughout the world.”
Nearby are a few pictures from each event.
A few thankful visitors from Boyd County left a message for all the Plainview staff and organizers when the track meet was restarted.
Plainview's track teams enduring rough weather.