El Paso skies turn eerie orange amid Texas-sized dust storm

A dust storm swept across El Paso, Texas Thursday afternoon making for orange skies.

EL PASO, Texas — A massive dust storm swept across western Texas Thursday afternoon, setting the skies afire in an eerie orange color.

Video from El Paso showed the surreal scene with the thick plume of dust blotting out all but the reddish-orange colors of the sun.

Winds in the region gusted well over 40 mph for hours, with a gust of 52 mph recorded at El Paso’s Airport around the time the video above was filmed.  Winds blowing across the arid prairies of eastern New Mexico and western Texas scooped up dirt and dust and smothered towns along the way.

Gusts and dust subsided Thursday night, but another round of blowing dust was expected Friday. Gusts were climbing back over 40 mph Friday afternoon and a Blowing Dust Advisory remained in effect until Friday evening.