Dust storms that blanketed the Phoenix area in thick haze this week were among the most intense to hit the region in years, scientists said Thursday. The storms, called haboobs, rolled through while the region sat under conditions that made loose dust and dirt easy to rip up and fling across roads, homes, and lungs. They can produce massive walls of dust and debris that blind drivers and make people sick.
Who Gets Hit First
The latest storm rolled in during the early morning hours Thursday, three days after the other one struck. There were no reports of any significant impacts, but both storms reduced visibility to half a mile (0.8 kilometers). That’s the kind of thin, choking air ordinary people get stuck breathing and driving through while the weather system does what it wants. "Luckily, they both happened when it was later at night, so there was less traffic on the roads," said National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Salerno in Phoenix. The relief here is thin and accidental. Fewer cars on the roads meant fewer people caught in the mess.
Both storms were extreme, Category 5 events on a scale of dust storm severity, with huge concentrations of dust and wind speeds of about 50 mph (80 kph), according to researchers at Arizona State University, which helped develop the scale. The scale, unveiled this year, was developed using data going back to 2010. That’s the apparatus trying to measure the damage after the fact, turning a public hazard into a chart while people still have to live with the dust.
What the Scientists Said
"To have Class 5 dust storms occur one right after another a few days apart is unprecedented in our records," said Randall Cerveny, a professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State. "We don't see that." He told The Associated Press in a phone interview that these were only the fifth and sixth dust storms in the last 16 years to reach Category 5. Those numbers matter because they show how rare and severe the storms were, not as a curiosity, but as a warning about what people in the region are being forced to endure.
Cerveny noted the Phoenix region has been drier than normal, which can increase the amount of dust that is kicked up. Scientists have said human-caused climate change increases the odds of both severe drought and heavier storms that could set the stage for more intense dust storms in the future. That’s the ugly loop: drier ground, stronger storms, more dust, more danger. The people at the bottom don’t get a vote in the weather, but they take the hit when the conditions stack up.
The System and the Storm
The storms, called haboobs, occur throughout the U.S. Southwest when strong downdrafts from thunderstorms stir up loose dust and dirt that get blown along in front of the approaching storm cell. The language sounds clinical. The experience isn’t. Massive walls of dust and debris don’t care about official scales or neat explanations. They blind drivers and make people sick, and the region keeps absorbing the cost.
The latest storms came three days apart, both severe enough to earn Category 5 status. That’s the fact that hangs over the whole thing. Two extreme dust storms. One after another. In a region already drier than normal. Scientists say the odds are shifting, and the people living under that shift are the ones left to deal with the haze, the danger, and whatever comes next.