A haboob is an arabic term for blow. It a gust of wind that raises ground dust and sand resulting with blowing dust and dirt and extremely limited visibility.
A rather large haboob went through Phoenix a few days ago. The dust wall was about a mile high and 50 miles wide. This week's haboob dust storm was the largest recorded in several decades.
Generated by a storm in Tucson, the dust wall progressed into the east valley, through Phoenix then headed west. Surprise experience mild remnants of the haboob. I was about a mile from my Sun City Grand home just about the time the haboob was in Surprise. My black car was immediately brown although the storm was meandering through blowing dirt without its original force.
The long lines at car washes this week resembled the turnstiles in Disneyland. Although time consuming, my car has been to the car wash twice. One person at the carwash told me that the sand damaged the paint on her husband's car.
I found this time lapsed video of this week's haboob. No one was reported hurt however many roofs, cars and trees were damaged. The force of this week's haboob is clearly depicted within the video.
The Phoenix Haboob of July 5th, 2011 from Mike Olbinski on Vimeo.
Comments(11)