You wouldn’t think I would need a reader tip to make me aware of breaking weather news in my own city. But although I’d seen some dark clouds and heard Becky mention something about strong winds in the East Valley, it wasn’t until I saw Mike Tichon’s comment that I realized a serious duststorm was in progress, practically right outside my door.
Upon reading the comment, I promptly turned on the local news, which had a reporter standing at West 75th Ave. & I-10 — about 5 miles south-southwest of where we live — reporting that the wind and dust had just arrived there. I checked the radar, which showed the dust cloud moving rapidly toward us from the south; wrote up a quick blog post; then grabbed my cell phone and camera, and hurried outside.
The first thing I saw, after walking to a spot in the parking lot where I have a decent view of the southern sky, was this:
Then I looked to my left, and got an even cooler view: the approaching dust cloud, seen from the (west) side, moving steadily north:
I liveblogged that view, then liveblogged again after the cloud arrived. More photos here.
The duststorm wasn’t that severe, at least not out here in Glendale; I think it was stronger further east. Here, at least, visibility was nowhere near zero, as it can get in strong haboobs, and the wind was little more than a light breeze. Still, it was cool to watch the dust cloud move in.
While I was out taking photos, a fellow resident of our apartment complex pulled into his parking spot. “Taking pictures of the dirt?” he asked me. Heh. Yup.
Anyway, thanks for the tip, Mike!
After the jump, a couple of cool radar views showing how the duststorm developed as a gust front from a strong thunderstorm south of Phoenix:
This view is from an elevation angle of 1.45:
And here’s a view from an elevation angle of 0.50 — so there’s a bit more distracting ground clutter, but the echoes of the dust are stronger:
June 7th, 2006 at 4:57:34 am
Man, first hurricanes, now dust/sandstorms! You’re blogging all the cool stuff..
At risk of being a little “blue,” do “strong haboobs” need strong habras?
June 7th, 2006 at 7:13:51 am
awesome pics.
June 7th, 2006 at 7:43:38 am
The Los Angeles TV made the dust storm look like armageddon was upon you! Sorry if I mis spelled armageddon, I am a lowly ND grad of old. My wife is a Trojan. We delayed our wedding because of a conflict with the USC Notre Dame game that year, which, I think, ND won (1980), but I may be wrong. We have 3 kids, and my son, who is a jr. football player has aspirations of playing for USC someday.
Such is life.
Enjoy Phoenix and Bryan Cave, it is an excellent firm from what I remember of them.
Mike Tichon
June 7th, 2006 at 8:24:54 am
“Haboobs”. Hee hee hee….
June 7th, 2006 at 9:19:43 am
Hehe. I, too, love the word “haboob.”
Mike, the haboobs do tend to look like armageddon. :) But they aren’t too rare out here — in fact, they’re saying another one is possible today! Even so, they’re very cool. This is really only the second time I’ve personally experienced one, and I got a much better view this time. So thanks again for the tip! And the good wishes. :)
Finally, I would like to point out that in calculating the estimate “about 5 miles [as the crow flies] south-southwest of where we live” based on Google Maps driving directions, I used the Pythagorean theorem. No, really, I did! I’m not sure, but I think that may be my first-ever real-world application of freshman-year geometry… :)
June 7th, 2006 at 9:50:05 am
The images on TV reminded me of a recent documentary about global warming that I saw on PBS. It was the image of a huge dust storm overtaking an abandoned city (probably in Africa) sometime in the future. Little did I realize it would be this soon and in this country.
Well, good luck on living in Phoenix. Hopefully it will be inhabitable 20 years from now.
June 7th, 2006 at 10:30:51 am
Dude, Phoenix gets these things all the time. It has nothing to do with global warming, and everything to do with the fact that anytime storm whips up a strong gust front in the dry desert, it also whips up dust. And strong gust fronts are common things — we get them in Connecticut sometimes, too. There just isn’t much dust for them to whip up in Connecticut.
That’s not to say global warming isn’t real. But it’s folks like you, A&A, who try to tie every damn local weather event to global warming (”It’s raining in Seattle!! Global warming!!”), who give climate-change science a bad name.
June 7th, 2006 at 10:59:26 am
Brendan-
No. The oil companies give global climate change science a bad name. The climate scientists pretty much have a consensus that this is happening and that the burning of fossil fuels is a major contributing factor. The only part where they disagree is if the tipping point is 10 years from now, 50 years from now or if we have already passed it.
Polar ice caps melting - naw. That can’t be global climate change.
Record numbers of hurricanes hitting the coast - naw. That can’t be global climate change.
When the cornbelt starts looking like parts of the desert southwest, are we still going to say - naw.
June 7th, 2006 at 11:21:56 am
Is Dr. William Gray, America’s most well-respected hurricane climatologist, an oil-company stooge?
Mind you, I believe in global warming. And I believe it might cause an increase in the number of hurricanes. But to claim that the entire debate is settled, and the controversy is really a conspiracy, is just NOT TRUE.
June 7th, 2006 at 11:22:14 am
P.S. And even if it WERE true, your comment about the duststorm would STILL be absurd.
June 7th, 2006 at 12:14:48 pm
Here are some of Gray’s quotes…
Gray has his own conspiracy theory. He has made a list of 15 reasons for the global warming hysteria. The list includes the need to come up with an enemy after the end of the Cold War, and the desire among scientists, government leaders and environmentalists to find a political cause that would enable them to “organize, propagandize, force conformity and exercise political influence. Big world government could best lead (and control) us to a better world!”
At one point during our meeting in Colorado he (Gray) blurts out, “Gore believed in global warming almost as much as Hitler believed there was something wrong with the Jews.”
…Gee. I wonder why nobody finds him credible.