Burning Man Attendees Blasted by Giant Dust Storm During Desert Exodus
Tens of thousands of Burning Man 2024 participants faced delays of up to ten hours getting off-site after a vicious dust storm reduced visibility to barely five feet on the last day of the infamous desert festival.
Billowing plumes of grit and sand kept drivers from inching along at more than a glacial pace on Monday, SFGate reports, with winds blowing hard and fast enough for the dust to sting the skin of any attendees unfortunate enough to have gone bare-legged. The storm apparently started up on Friday night before gathering steadily over the weekend.
Bad weather had already once threatened to turn the festival into a rerun of the horror show that engulfed last year’s event, with around 12 hours of non-stop rain forcing organizers to briefly close their gates before things had even kicked off on Aug. 25.