Looking like a scene from a science fiction movie, these videos shows a wall of dust engulfing Phoenix Arizona.These types of dust storms can reach thousands of feet into the air, as they get spurred on by strong winds. The dense cloud dramatically reduced visibility, grounding flights at a major airport and leaving thousands without electricity. The first video gives you a great idea of how it looked from a time laps view. The second video was taken as the storm already had half of Phoenix covered with dust. MSNBC reported the following,
The huge dust wall that crossed the metro Phoenix area drastically reduced visibility, halting all flights coming in and out of Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport Tuesday night.The dust cloud that moved across the Phoenix valley had formed in an afternoon storm in the Tucson area, and then rolled north across the desert before sweeping over the city like an enormous wave, said National Weather Service meteorologist Paul Iniguez.
"This was pretty significant. We heard from a lot of people who lived here for a number of storms and this was the worst they'd seen."By the time the dust cloud neared the metropolitan area, it had started to dissolve but it still towered over the city with a wall of at least 5,000 feet, according to the weather service.
KSAZ-TV in Phoenix reported the storm appeared to be roughly 50 miles wide in some spots, and it briefly blanketed the city's downtown at around nightfall. (video report at bottom of post)
Phoenix's fire department received 720 emergency phone calls during the dust storm and fire crews handled over 320 incidents during the same time period. (Excerpt) Read more at, MSNBC
Wunderground's Dr. Jeff Masters' of, WunderBlog.com offers the following explanation for the storm's ferocity:
A massive desert sandstorm roared through Phoenix, Arizona last night, dropping visibilities to near zero and coating surfaces with a gritty later of dust and sand. The phenomena, known as a haboob, occurs when the outflow from a thunderstorm kicks up desert dust. Last night's haboob was due to a large complex of thunderstorms known as a mesoscale convective system (MCS) that developed to the east of Phoenix. As the outflow from the MCS hit the ground, large quantities of sand and dust became suspended in the air by 50 - 60 mph winds. The amount of dust was much greater than is usual for one of these storms, due to the large size of the thunderstorm complex, and the extreme drought conditions the region has been experiencing. As the haboob hit Phoenix, winds gusted to 53 mph at Sky Harbor International Airport, and the airport was forced to shut down for 45 minutes due to visibilities that fell as low as 1/8 mile. The airport received only 0.04" of rain from the storm, but large regions of Southern Arizona got 1 - 2 inches of rain overnight due to the monsoon thunderstorms. The Southwest U.S.'s annual monsoon season has kicked into gear this week, aided by moisture from Tropical Storm Arlene.
Mike Oblinski, who filmed the time laps video, wrote
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Dust Storm Causes Damage in Valley
Report by KSAZ 10 Fox News Phoenix |
About Me: I am a born again Christian who enjoys talking religion and politics. I have always believed that it is the Christian's obligation to understand the workings of our government as well as they do the precepts of God. Jesus tells us to be "wise as serpents and harmless as doves". (Mark 10:16) So it is with this understanding that I approach life. I was born in the Midwest, and while I may have grown up in Northern Minnesota, I have earned my degree in knowledge and understanding from the many regions of America and Europe that I have either lived in or visited as an adult.
Used to live in AZ and have seen these things coming at me. Reminds me of something out of a Stephen King novel.
If you live in the desert, you have to have True Grit . . .
LOL, if you do not have true grit when you arrive in the state, you will definitely have it all inside your belongings soon enough.
I lived in Phoenix back in the mid "80"s and worked as a rough framer on a few construction sites. I arrived looking like the fair skinned Northerner I was. 6 Months later, I left looking like a tuff tan skinned desert dweller.