• Location: Fernley, Nevada
• Mood: cheerful

Blowing a Storm

Yesterday afternoon around lunch, Lisa and I were considering taking the Rolling Stone to go get the waste tanks emptied and then go get a last bit of groceries before Thanksgiving, when my phone sounded an Emergency Broadcast System warning tone. That was a National Weather Service issuing a Dust Storm Warning, warning people to avoid travel for the next few hours. Well, driving the RV in good weather is hard enough without a dust storm to contend with, so we stayed put.



While I was having lunch, I could hear the wind howling around the house. I popped out on the porch and saw a wall of clouds and dust heading east toward Fernley. We heard later from the owner of Hanneman's Tow Service that east of here toward Fallon, visibility was down to less than 50 feet during the peak of the storm.



A few minutes later, this "rainbow fleet" consist of BNSF 8045, Kansas City Southern 4858, and BNSF 5341 arrived on the BNSF trackage-rights train. They would, among other jobs, collect ex-Santa Fe BNSF 183 (one of those units used on the local Fernley switcher, being sent off for servicing) when they switched the "House Tracks" under an increasingly bitter wind that started dropping cold rain and then snow.

After the worst of the wind had passed, Lisa and I did the local grocery shopping trip, but took the Astro, not the RV. (We'll see about dumping the tanks tomorrow or Thursday.) We did get snowed on, but none of it stuck, except to my hat. This morning, when I went to get more wood for the fireplace, there was a very light dusting of snow on the ground here and the snow line on the surrounding hills was noticeably lower. We're due for more light snow today, but then the weather clears, which is especially good for Friday when we start the first leg of the drive to SMOFCon.