An avalanche of fine particles rolled across northwest Indiana and north-central Illinois on Friday, turning day to night in an area of the country rarely hit by dust storms.

A dark cloud suddenly brought near-zero visibility conditions Friday afternoon to major highways, including Interstate 55 and Interstate 57 in Illinois, prompting the National Weather Service to fire off a series of warnings about “dangerous, life-threatening” conditions on roads.

As the wave of sifting dust blew into Chicago, it created a dramatic scene. Visibility dropped to a quarter-mile at Chicago Midway International Airport.

“This is not common at all,” Zachary Yack, a meteorologist with the weather service office in Romeoville, 30 miles southwest of Chicago, said Friday.

Friday marked the first time that Romeoville’s office had ever issued a dust storm warning for the city.

Dust storms can occur anywhere in the United States, but they’re most common in the desert Southwest and across the southern Great Plains, particularly in late winter and early spring.

— The New York Times