After Texas Tech researchers discovered that windstorms may be spreading antibiotic-resistant bacteria from local feedlots, public health experts stood up and took notice. So did the Texas Cattle Feeders Association.

The curtain of dust that swept over the Panhandle on October 17, 2011, descended from the northwest. It was a chinook wind, a cold front that slid off the eastern slope of the Rockies, pulling milky clay particles from the flatlands of New Mexico as it raced across the state line. It had been the driest year that Texas had ever known, and the soil that lay on the harvested cotton fields was bare for the taking. As it passed Amarillo, the storm cloud engulfed entire herds of cattle.

At 4:15 p.m., as the air grew dark and thick, the anemometer in Friona clocked the wind at 71 miles per hour. The Dimmitt police filed a report with the same time stamp: “Powerlines trees barn roof blown down.” Five minutes later, an update: “Duststorm with visibilities below 0.25 mile.” At 5:05 p.m., power lines went down in Plainview. Twenty minutes later, the roof of a gas station blew off in Levelland.

From the National Wind Institute, at the converted Reese Air Force Base, just outside Lubbock, radar tracked the progression of the now full-blown haboob, a collapsed thunderstorm riding the edge of the advancing cold front. As it cartwheeled toward Texas Tech University, it grew to more than a mile and a half in height, a moving wall of turbulent dust. Residents stopped at streetlights and leaned onto their dashboards, watching as it consumed what little blue sky remained.