If you have been anywhere near Scottsdale in the past couple of weeks, you have probably experienced, seen, or at least heard about one of the two Haboobs that decided to run in and out of town. What is a haboob? Well you on the opposite end of the questions we where all asking when we saw the giant dust cloud coming at us from what seemed like all angles. “What is that?”
So, truly, how do you know if you are going to be hit by a Haboob? Well, unless you are near a television, I don’t know if you can know. I was on the road when the first one hit. When I looked South, I saw what seemed to be just a normal rainstorm. That was obviously not the case. When the Haboob finally began to tear through the barbecue I was attending it was almost surreal. This enormous dust cloud had engulfed the neighborhood. When we were in the thick of things it was a surprising mix of calm and apocalyptic. Dust in the air and a little windy in the beginning but besides that, it wasn’t a huge deal.
The after effects you ask? Nothing but a layer of dust on everything and a hude spike in demand for the car wash industry. I got a question the other day about safety procedures during a Haboob. The only thing I would recommend would be staying off the road when one of these things hit. Visibility can become very limited very quickly.
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