NEWS-FINANCE -QUOTE-EDUCATIONAL AND MOTIVATIONAL
A powerful storm kicked up a towering wall of dust that rolled through the city of Phoenix, Arizona, on Monday, darkening the sky, blinding drivers, knocking out power and damaging one of the nation’s busiest airports.
The dust storm, known as a haboob, is pushed by the wind and produced by a weather front or thunderstorm. It typically occurs in flat, arid areas. The storm came from the south-east, and was followed by heavy rain, wind and lightning.
Bernae Boykin Hitesman was driving her son and daughter, ages nine and 11, home from school when the storm arrived late in the afternoon in Arizona City, about 60 miles (95km) south-east of Phoenix.
She had to quickly pull over as the storm engulfed her car. “I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face if I put my hand outside,” she said.
Boykin Hitesman said she could taste the dust and feel the strong wind rattling her car until it finally p***ed about 15 minutes later.
“I was nervous,” she said. “My kids were really, really scared, so I was trying to be brave for them.”
Richard Filley, a retired university professor who lives in Gilbert, said the dust storm caused the trees to sway and knocked bird feeders to the ground. Fine dust found its way through “every little crack and space” into his house, he said.
“The windstorm part of it, I’m glad it’s gone,” he said. “You look at the photos of hablock and they are a spectacular natural phenomenon. They are kind of beautiful in their own way.”
Heavy rain and wind followed Monday’s haboob, delaying flights at Phoenix Sky Harbor international airport and causing some damage to the airport.
“Crews have been identifying leaks and attempting to clean up water where it has collected in p***enger areas,” Heather Shelbrack, the airport’s deputy aviation director for public relations, said in an email.
Tens of thousands of customers in Maricopa county lost power.
Hablock are spawned by thunderstorms, which can produce strong downdrafts that hit the ground at 50-80mph (80-129km/h) and then spread in all directions, said Sean Benedict, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Phoenix office.
The winds stir up loose dust and dirt, including from arid areas and farm fields, that get blown along in front of the approaching storm cell.
If thunderstorms don’t keep developing, the dust dissipates. But rain-cooled air in front of a storm can keep pushing warm air upward, generating new storms and more downdrafts, Benedict said.
When that happens, the haboob can keep growing, and some travel as far as 100 miles, Benedict said.
“It’s all dependent on whether they’re moving through an area that’s prone to [generating] dust,” said Benedict, noting that there’s a prominent dust corridor between Phoenix and Tucson.
It’s unclear whether hablock will become more frequent. Scientists say monsoons have become more intense since the 1970s as the atmosphere heats up due to human-caused climate change.
At the same time, it’s raining less often as droughts last longer and some arid areas expand. The climate crisis increases the odds of both severe drought and heavier storms that could set the stage for more intense dust storms in the future.
The storms require a specific set of cir***stances, and land use, such as farming, can affect how much dust gets picked up, Benedict said.
The storm comes just days after the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert was hit by dust storms and high winds.
The annual gathering in the Black Rock desert officially started on Sunday, but attenders who had already set up camp on Saturday were confronted with a powerful dust storm that sent tents flying and plunged visibility to near zero.
Footage shared on social media by attenders showed intense winds, dust storms and collapsed tents.
Meteorologists have warned that the the harsh conditions could possibly persist for several days. Additional thunderstorms have a high probability of hitting the site between Tuesday and Wednesday, according to AccuWeather. The National Weather Service also warned of a “monsoonal moisture” that could spark “minor flooding” through Nevada. Drier weather is expected to arrive on Thursday.
