Monsoonal Storms Bring Haboob To Phoenix Area

Sean Breslin
Published: August 26,2015

A haboob swept through the Phoenix area Tuesday afternoon, reducing visibilities to very short distances while covering everything in a thick layer of dust.
The Arizona Republic reported storms initially triggered the dust storm at about 4:30 p.m. local time Tuesday, and the dust storm quickly blew toward Phoenix, aided by gusty winds. As the storms came through, they brought wind, heavy rain and lightning as well, according to KPHO.com.
"Monsoonal moisture combined with a disturbance aloft led to thunderstorm development in Arizona on Tuesday," said weather.com meteorologist Chris Dolce. "As is typical this time of year, those storms produced outflow winds that picked up small particles of dirt and dust as they moved through the deserts, leading to areas of blowing dust."
(MORE: 10-Year-Old Boy Survives Nearly 30 Hours in Wilderness)
North of Phoenix, in Pima County, power lines brought down by the storms trapped 11 people in six cars for several hours, KPHO.com also reported. They were not injured.
Wind gusts were clocked as high as 55 mph in northeastern Maricopa County and northwestern Gila County during the dust storm, the Arizona Republic also said.
MORE: Haboobs