Haboob!

. . . . not Hoodoo or Whoohoo!

While living on the outskirts of Phoenix I witnessed several extreme dust storms, also known by the Arabic name of haboob! I can’t even say it without an exclamation point in my voice.

They would sweep through the valley between our balcony and the distant mountains giving us a perfect view of these Forces of Nature. Only once did I get a mouthful of grit and have to make a hasty retreat to the apartment.

The view would completely disappear behind the spooky murk.

Moments later as the wind blew through the dust would disappear and the view of distant mountains and our ‘world famous’ fountain rising up to over 500 feet would reappear.

And later, a perfect moonrise over Four Peaks was revealed – two more forces of nature:

This is no longer our ‘corner of the world’ but nature is more genteel in this corner of the world and I wanted to share the noxious dust storm pictures with you.