Phoenix Dustpocalypse

[Eclipse]

This is not shopped:


Anyone here experience this first hand?  I had the pleasure of being in Phoenix about this time last year - that week it hit 112 - but nothing like this.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2011/07/06/vo.az.dust.storm.ktvk?hpt=hp_c2

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/43651056

http://tucsoncitizen.com/arizona-news/2011/07/06/photos-of-july-5-phoenix-dust-storm/

If you didn't know better you'd think it was part of a movie.

[a2capt]

One like that hit when I was in PHX, 1987 era..  nearly just like that, saw it coming. I lived near Cave Creek and Thunderbird at the time. Looked like it was coming "up and around the corner from Scottsdale", following Tatum and then westerly. Got in the car and went to the highest spot I could get to quickly, and it was wicked watching it make everything disappear until such time when even my elevation didn't matter. Back into the car I went.. The whole place was covered in sand after that, a few electrical transformers went off, seeing the green lightning talk back to the sky was always a fun thing during lightning storms. IIRC, it was like about a half hour before visibility was restored enough to drive far. Even fog was nothing like this.

[Major Lord]

I spoke to a friend of mine today who told me that he was sitting in his new house outside of Phoenix, and the world just went "black" with no warning; He had no idea it was coming. The only damage came from leaving his RV windows open, which created quite a mess, but no actual damage. It looked like real "wrath of God" stuff to me. Did Phoenix say something lately to piss off the creator of the universe?

Major Lord

[Al Sayre]

When I was stationed in Sicily, we occasionally got something like that from what they call the Sirroco (sp?) winds.  Big dust storms that blow north out of the Sahara.  Impressive, but nothing quite like the blackout in the picture...  We'd spend days cleaning the aircraft afterwards, the dust gets into everything.

[bosshawk]

Years ago, while driving on I-10 in New Mexico, I drove into one of these things and I can guarantee you that you might as well be flying on instruments: zero visibililty.

[Major Lord]

When I was stationed in Sicily, we occasionally got something like that from what they call the Sirroco (sp?) winds.  Big dust storms that blow north out of the Sahara.  Impressive, but nothing quite like the blackout in the picture...  We'd spend days cleaning the aircraft afterwards, the dust gets into everything.

AL, your spelling is perfect, although it is also sometimes spelled Scirroco, from the Arabic word Sharqi for "Eastern". It has a different name in other countries, like Greece, but the name escapes me. It was certainly an awesome site to behold, as was the video of that aircraft flying though it: Scary!

Major Lord

[Short Field]

Just another dust storm in AZ during monsoon season...

[jimmydeanno]

Wish we'd get a monsoon.  It's only rained twice here, since April, for a total of 1 inch.

[UWONGO2]

I noticed it as I was pulling into a store parking lot. There was a helicopter overhead getting video of the thing approaching. The wall was close (or at least looked close) so I high-tailed into the store figuring I'd let the thing blow over.

Forty minutes later and I still couldn't see out the window, I decided the heck with it and started walking in the direction I thought my car was (I was off by only a few cars) and ate sand the whole way.

I have plenty of experience in blizzard driving and this was very similar, although obviously traction wasn't an issue. Had I needed to go further than the couple of miles I drove, I probably would have ended up spending the night at the store. Intersections where you can't see the semaphores until you are under them is not the safest place to be.