What causes dust storms?
Dust storms need strong wind and dry, loose ground. The most dramatic kind, a haboob, happens when a thunderstorm collapses and its cold air slams into the ground and races outward, lifting a wall of dust that can tower thousands of feet high.
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How a haboob forms
Rain falling from a thunderstorm into very dry air evaporates and chills the air around it. That cold, heavy air plunges to the ground as a downdraft and spreads out fast in every direction as an outflow wind. Over a dry desert floor, it scoops up dust and sand and pushes it ahead as a rolling wall, often well before any rain arrives.
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Where and when
Haboobs are common around Phoenix and southern Arizona during the summer monsoon, as well as in the Sahara, the Middle East and Australia. Large, longer-lasting dust storms also come with strong cold fronts and dry winds across plowed fields or drought-hit land, as in the 1930s Dust Bowl.
Staying safe
Visibility can drop to nearly zero in seconds. Arizona's advice to drivers is "Pull aside, stay alive": pull off the road as far as possible, turn off your lights, set the parking brake and keep your foot off the brake pedal so others don't follow your taillights. The dust is also hard on lungs; stay indoors if you can.
Questions people ask
- What does haboob mean?
- It comes from an Arabic word for a strong, blowing wind, first used for dust storms in Sudan.
- Can dust travel across oceans?
- Yes. Dust from the Sahara regularly crosses the Atlantic to the Caribbean and the southern US, especially in summer.