A powerful dust storm roared through the Phoenix area earlier this week with a wall of dust towering hundreds metre high dwarfing the city’s neighbourhoods. Called a haboob, the wind-driven phenomenon blackened skies and knocked out electricity for 15,000 customers late Monday afternoon.
Drenching rain followed, and flights at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, where material from a terminal roof blew onto the tarmac, came to a halt.
But by Tuesday afternoon things were mostly back to normal as crews cleaned up downed trees and got power mostly restored for thousands of people.
Workers were tracking down and cleaning up leaks in the airport, said Heather Shelbrack, deputy aviation director for public relations.
Bernae Boykin Hitesman was driving her son and daughter, ages 9 and 11, home from school when the storm arrived in Arizona City, about 95 km. southeast of Phoenix. She quickly pulled over as the storm engulfed the car. “I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face if I put my hand outside,” she said.
A weather front or thunderstorm can cause a haboob. The phenomenon usually happens in flat, arid areas and is not unusual in Arizona.
Phoenix has been drier than usual during the monsoon season, while parts of southeast and north-central Arizona have had a fair amount of rain, according to Mark O’Malley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Phoenix. “But that’s typical for a monsoon, very hit and miss,” he said.
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