It was like a scene from a disaster movie. People ran for shelter, panicked drivers pulled over, and the local airport grounded flights. Moments later, a towering mountain of dust swallowed the city. It was quickly followed by severe thunderstorms that uprooted trees and left tens of thousands of people without electricity.
What was this weather phenomenon that swept through Phoenix, Arizona, and nearby communities this past August? It was a haboob. That is a massive dust storm that forms when powerful winds from thunderstorms lift large amounts of dust and debris into the air. The giant dust cloud that rolled through central Arizona was about 5,000 feet tall and at least 50 miles wide. People in the center of the storm couldn’t see even a few feet in front of them.