Winds gusted across the Plains to nearly 50 mph on Thursday, bringing a real dust storm to much of Kansas and Northern Oklahoma. Today the dust has reached Tennessee and Alabama, and the dry soil from the summer drought almost certainly played a role in this event as well.

The latest GOES image Friday afternoon shows the intense low near Chicago. This is what meteorologists call a cutoff low and it extends through much of the troposphere. It is slowly weakening now, and the strong winds are diminishing.