Dust storm batters Phoenix, disrupting flights and cutting power
A massive haboob swept through the Phoenix metropolitan area Monday evening, reducing visibility to near zero.
The storm uprooted trees, caused wind damage, disrupted airport operations, and left thousands without electricity, News.Az reports, citing CNN.
The dust storm was quickly followed by severe thunderstorms that tore through the city, including Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, where a connector bridge was shredded by 70 mph wind gusts.
The National Weather Service in Phoenix issued both dust storm and severe thunderstorm warnings as the system pushed into Maricopa County Monday evening. The weather service warned drivers of near-zero visibility and urged people to “pull aside stay alive.”
After the storms swept through, more than 60,000 customers in Arizona were left without power, with the majority of outages concentrated in Maricopa County, according to PowerOutage.us.
For about an hour, the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport had a ground stop preventing any planes from leaving or landing as a cloud of dust seemed ready to swallow up the facility. The airport was experiencing up to 30 minute delays late Monday night while crews assessed any damage or roof leaks, airport spokesperson Gregory E. Roybal said.
Dust storms are nothing new in Arizona’s monsoon season, but Thursday’s storm packed extra punch. A thunderstorm collapsed, and its winds blasted outward, scooping up desert soil and building it into a rolling wall of dust. These walls can climb thousands of feet high and stretch for miles, cutting off the horizon in seconds, similar to a blizzard in winter.
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