TORONTO – While residents on the east coast of the United States are dealing with Hurricane Arthur, residents of Phoenix, Arizona, were battling another type of storm on Thursday – a dust storm.
The massive wall of dust swept across the city around 7:30 p.m., grounding flights at the city’s main airport.
Dust storms aren’t unusual for the region and are part of the monsoon season.
Monsoons are reversals of wind patterns over a geographic area and happen seasonally. Generally, they produce heavy rains and thunderstorms.
The monsoon season in the U.S. is much less severe than those in India and Southeast Asia. Sometimes these thunderstorms can produce downbursts of air and push out wind ahead of it which sweeps across the drier land, creating these dust storms. Also known as “haboobs,” these storms can last for hours.
According to the National Weather Service, Phoenix generally receives one to three dust storms a season.
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