Update as of Aug. 26 at 6:45 p.m.: A tweet from Burning Man's traffic account stated that the entry gate is now open, but new arrivals should expect long delays.

Burning Man attendees are settling into their first day at the weeklong event, but those arriving Sunday were hit with high winds, and plenty of dust and smoke — triggering Burning Man organizers to close the entrance to the camp for hours Sunday afternoon.

Long wait times at the gate into Burning Man are a natural byproduct of welcoming an estimated 70,000 attendees onto the playa, with estimated waits extending to six hours at its peak. By 3:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon, however, the Twitter account monitoring traffic announced that "extreme weather" was forcing the gate to close amid rolling whiteouts.