Arizona dust storm: ‘It’s like being sandblasted’
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A massive dust storm moved through Phoenix on Thursday, downing telephone poles, ripping shingles off roofs, and knocking over trees with wind speeds as high as 40 to 50 mph.
You can see, in the video above, what the dust storm looks like as it comes gusting across the landscape, but what does it feel like to be in the middle of a dust storm?
‘It’s like being sandblasted,’ Valerie Meyers, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Phoenix told the Los Angeles Times. ‘It gets in your eyes; you don’t want to breathe and inhale. It can be very dense, and it can take visibility right down to nothing.’
This was the third dust storm to hit Phoenix this summer, but dust storms can occur in that area any time of the year, she said. People there generally know what to do, Meyers added -- try to find a place indoors so the dust doesn’t get into the lungs and stop driving if in the car.
They also know what will happen after the dust has dissipated — a whole lot of cleanup.
‘It will end up in your pool, on your car, it will coat your windows. It’s a sediment deposit that covers everything,’ she said.
If you’d like to make your own haboob, Meyers recommends taking a small fan and allowing it to blow a cup of flour across your desk.
‘There you go,’ she said. ‘Instant dust storm.’
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--Deborah Netburn
Video from azcentral.com
