Camps are set on a muddy desert plain on September 2, 2023, after heavy rains turned the annual Burning Man festival site in Nevada’s Black Rock desert into a mud pit.
Julie Jammot/Getty Images
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Julie Jammot/Getty Images
People descending on the Nevada desert for this year’s Burning Man event are being met with dust and wind, which could continue over the next few days.
The event started Sunday in the Black Rock Desert, about 100 miles north of Reno, Nev. It is “not a festival,” but a “global cultural movement where people come together to create, innovate, and share stories,” according to the Burning Man Project, the nonprofit responsible for the affair. The organization did not respond to requests for comment.
From Monday to Wednesday, there is between a 30% and 60% chance of precipitation in the Reno area, but the storms haven’t started pushing toward Black Rock yet, GiGi Giralte, a National Weather Service meteorologist, told NPR.
Burning Man organizers say about 80,000 people show up to their event each year. Some videos on social media since Sunday have shown attendees battling high winds, with particles of dust clouding their camera lenses.
“The main concern with some of these storms, at least today, will be that they are relatively slow-moving storms, and so they will be able to produce more rain than if they were moving relatively quickly,” Giralte said.
The weather could also bring forth small hail and kick up dust. However, the forecasted amounts of rain and moisture can help.
“It’s a very fine material up there,” Giralte said. “And so it’s very easy for that to get elevated with any wind. If they are a little damp up there, and they’ve got some showers yesterday, that will reduce how much dust is possible to get lofted into the air.”
The area will begin to dry up starting Thursday, giving eventgoers a few days of relief until Burning Man ends next Monday.
In 2023, it took people about seven hours to travel along the 5-mile route out of the desert, as the road had become extremely muddy after heavy rains.
But these weather conditions are pretty normal for Black Rock this time of year, which is monsoon season. In nearby Gerlach, temperatures reach an average high of about 94 degrees this time of year, and an average low of about 60, the National Weather Service said.
Giralte encourages Burning Man attendees to keep an eye on the forecast and have a plan to respond to hazardous conditions, such as sheltering in the car.
