Burning Man festival temporarily ground to a halt over the weekend due to dust storms and high winds that sent tents flying and plunged visibility to near zero.<\/p>\n
On Monday, organizers of the Nevada<\/a> festival said the Black Rock City airport and the festival gates had reopened as the festival officially got underway.<\/p>\n According to San Francisco Chronicle<\/a>, a powerful dust storm swept through the Black Rock Desert\u00a0\u2013\u00a0where the annual event is held \u2013\u00a0on Saturday evening, damaging campsites, causing travel delays and resulting in at least four minor injuries.<\/p>\n The National Weather Service issued a dust storm advisory<\/a> for the area that evening, warning of a \u201cwall of blowing dust\u201d moving northward at 30mph (48km\/h), with strong wind gusts \u201cin excess of 45mph\u201d.<\/p>\n One attendee told the Chronicle they saw tents and structures \u201cbeing ripped and torn down by the wind speeds even though we buttoned everything down as best as we could\u201d.<\/p>\n Footage shared on social media by attendees who had already set up camp ahead of Sunday\u2019s official festival start showed intense winds,<\/a> dust storms<\/a> and collapsed tents<\/a>.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the Burning Man Project told SFGate<\/a> that wind gusts reached over 45mph for a \u201csustained period of time\u201d and that \u201cparticipants and staff were advised to batten down their camps and avoid driving during low visibility\u201d.<\/p>\n On Sunday\u00a0\u2013\u00a0the first official day of the 2025 festival \u2013\u00a0the NWS issued another dust advisory as well as a wind advisory<\/a>, forecasting gusts up to 50mph, along with potential rain and scattered thunderstorms.<\/p>\n On Sunday night, the organizers closed<\/a> the gate in and out of Black Rock City, and halted flights in the area. They urged those already on site to \u201csecure your structures and belongings\u201d<\/a> and to not drive.<\/p>\n By early Monday, organizers said that conditions had improved and at 7.30am local time, organizers said that the gate was open<\/a> and that the airport had resumed function.<\/p>\n In the statement on Monday, the festival organizers said that \u201cdue to variable weather conditions over the past few days, wait times from the 8-mile playa entrance on County Route 34 to the Gate are expected to range 6-8 hours today but could change with the weather\u201d.<\/p>\n But the grim weather conditions may not be over yet. Organizers also warned that Monday\u2019s forecast includes \u201cpotential precipitation\u201d in the afternoon and early evening and that the \u201cweather continues to be unstable and is expected to be unstable for two more days\u201d.<\/p>\n They urged attendees to \u201ckeep an eye on the forecast as you plan your travel to Black Rock City\u201d and to \u201cplan for additional potential weather related delays\u201d.<\/p>\n The NWS in Elko has warned<\/a> that \u201cmonsoonal moisture will stream northward into most of Northern and Central Nevada today through Thursday, resulting in the likelihood of wetting thunderstorms each afternoon and evening\u201d and that \u201cheavy rain may cause minor flooding of recent burn scars, streams, and creeks\u201d.<\/p>\n Roughly 70,000 people are expected to attend this year\u2019s festival, which runs through 1 September, according to NBC News<\/a>.<\/p>\n The situation was reminiscent of the disastrous weather that plagued the event in 2023, when heavy rain stranded tens of thousands<\/a> at the festival, turning the site into a mud pit<\/a> and prompting emergency shelter-in-place orders. One death was reported.<\/p>\n