I-55 closed in Illinois due pile up involving more than 50 vehicles

Except that this happened over 220 miles away from Chicago,and it’s called the Windy City mostly because of the politics rather than the actual weather. Usually in Central Illinois dust storms are rare.
As I said previously usually this time of year Illinois typically gets either winter weather or severe weather (thunderstorms and tornadoes) and the region from Springfield down to St. Louis gets more than their fair share!

 

Dust storm in Illinois leaves at least 6 dead after dozens of vehicles crash on major highway, officials say | CNN

 

Being that I have lived in the central Illinois area for most of my life I would agree that dust storms so to speak aren’t that common but I can think of several in my lifetime….they just weren’t along a highly traveled interstate that is occupied my total morons with no concept of physics. They happen out in the sticks and we were like wow that’s crazy but nothing bad came of it and no one knows because no one cares. The current weather situation is perfect for this though. It’s generally been a very dry spring and most of the farming has been done in about 2 weeks with very few rain days so there’s literally miles of flat ground that’s freshly worked and fairly dry and it’s been quite windy today and actually yesterday to so the small soil particles on top are extremely dry. One good gust and hear comes the dust cloud.

 

I've passed through some whoppers driving through stretches of 55 around Springfield, Illinois. No rain, just high wind and dust. Once I could have sworn it was a legit tornado but it wasn't.

 

Years ago I got hit with a gust of wind near Litchfield I55 nb came out from a overpass and got slammed #### near blew me over. Just that one gust came outa nowhere

 

Exactly! I thought something hit the trailer because of the noise it made. Thought I lost a panel or something. I've lost pieces of plastic off the mirrors and trim going through parts of Illinois, Texas [at 80mph], and New Mexico/Arizona border.

I've had to drive trucks with wheel alignment way off, but driving in high wind is similar to that- holding the steering wheel centered at 10 & 4 o'clock.

And with gusts like that- forget about trying to roll a cigarette or change the radio station [except using the steering wheel controls]...

 

I grew up in north central Illinois I know we had a some dust storms I remember in 1981 we had 1 that it was bad enough that the dirt took the paint of the siding on the west of the house and left 2' high banks of dirt in the road ditchs like snow banks tillage Practices were different for farming then ..
They claimed that dirt can come from as far away as Iowa in that storm .. I grew up 125 miles east of the Mississippi river
The Dust storms in Oklahoma in the early 30's were totally different and were the result of a prolonged drought and poor farming practices those dust storms were more wide spread than just Oklahoma .. it was just more pronounced there because of the sand based soil types

 

I never write off the Illini for wild weather, i grew up in north dakota and live in Nebraska and 2 of the worst blizzards I've ever seen have been in Illinois along with a dam good tornado that just missed me .

 

Also seems like I39 and I80 is an area that gets very high winds, I've seen many many trucks laying on their side in that general area over the years

Edit: just seen as of about an hour ago its all finally reopened

 

As @Catmando mentioned about the 30’s, this is also the result of poor farming practices. Farmers have torn out every tree line they can and give zero thought to topsoil erosion. These farmers have been chomping at the bit to get out there, regardless of the strong winds we’ve been having, the last two weeks. I can remember reading in Prairie Farmer magazine about ways to stop soil erosion. Tree lines were one of them. It’s all about greed, now.

Also, a basic rule of the road is to NOT drive into zero visibility conditions. Everyone here was in too big of a hurry to pull over and wait it out.

I live off the next exit, just north of this mess.