Is The Dust Bowl Happening Again?
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- čas přidán 8. 09. 2021
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In the 1930s, the US experienced what has been called its greatest ecological disaster, when the dust bowl ravaged the midwest, eroding topsoil, destroying crops, and displacing millions. As climate change exacerbates drought across much of the US in places like Phoenix and the larger Colorado River basin, damaging dust storms and haboobs are becoming more common, leading many experts to ask whether we might be heading into another dust bowl?
In this episode of Weathered, we speak to a leading expert about this growing threat, the various hazards that dust storms pose to our health, and how best to prepare ourselves and stay out of harm's way.
Weathered is a show hosted by meteorologist Maiya May and produced by Balance Media that helps explain the most common natural disasters, what causes them, how they’re changing, and what we can do to prepare.
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In 2005, in Phoenix AZ, I was trying to get home before a dust storm arrived. I had heard on radio that it was coming. About a mile from my apartment, I could see the wall coming at me, but I decided I would try to persevere since I was so close to home. I did hit the wall, but it was wet, not dry. Suddenly mud was all over my windshield. I turned on my wipers and was barely able to make to the side of the road to wait for it to pass. My car was completely covered with mud in less than a minute. It was a very weird feeling to be in a mud storm.
Wow, do you have photos?
@@ElementalWildfire No. I'm afraid in 2005 all I had on me was a flip phone. Didn't own a smart phone then. It would have made an awesome set of pictures.
Mud storms!? That's crazy, I didn't even know those existed.
@@ElementalWildfire makes sense due to the fact haboobs in az are caused by outflows from the monsoons.
I lived there for a few decades, trashes the air filters on cars as well.
Baghdad 2004...oddly enough the sand over there is so fine that the heat from large paved areas caused the storm to lift up about 10-12 feet. You could walk under the storm and look up through it as it worked as a kind of giant orange filter.
Wow
Whoa! That sounds wild!
we had one like that in '06 in Baghdad as well, the most surreal thing I have ever seen.
I remember that, I was there in 04-05
Man! That really paints a picture, thanks for sharing.
it’s interesting that Arizona was mentioned almost as an afterthought, yet all of the haboob footage was shot here.
As a long time visitor to Arizona, this is not a new or rare phenomenon, and is definitely not linked to the modern Global Warming narrative.
Furthermore, the duration/frequency/scale of a haboob is nothing compared to what happened during the Dust Bowl.
Using video of Arizona haboobs in such an intentionally misleading way makes it hard for me to trust the rest of her story.
I think the message is that they'll spread to more parts of the US due to extended drought, and in my opinion, massive fires.
I'm in NY and could track my asthma symptoms with the firesmoke map.
@@glynnec2008 keyword “longtime visitor” not residence within the area.
Lot of video show the wrong places wrong pictures are...
The stupid norm...
Hey
Fake news!
The thrill some people get when they talk about the thing they are passionate about is always beautiful to see
If you're a college student, talk to your professors! See if they have the time and ask if you can just pick their brain. More often than not, they're THRILLED to see someone interested in the usually very narrow and esoteric field of study they've devoted their lives to.
yes, truly an odd event to witness. Being in the desert of Iraq and Saudi Arabia a wall of sand will hit and you just have to kill all your vehicles and prep your vehicles as best you can and wait it out and then when it it done clear all the vehicles air intake filters out and be sure to change all engine and transmission and transfer case and tans axle hub fluids and oils once back to the motor pool or the sand contamination will kill your vehicle real quick. Extra care must be taken not to allow fuel contamination, burning sand infused fuel is not healthy for any engine to say the least. The best you can hope for is a completely clogged filter and swop it out without contamination. No air, no combustion. A Mechanics Hell!!! I have sworn to never live or visit a desert again when my service was up. But it now seems with climate change the Continental US is now turning into more of a dessert and dessolite place.
People should also learn that pulling over, is pulling over to the far right or left not stop in the middle, and parking, which happens in white-out conditions so often. People should also learn that being in a car has different visibility than trucks and semis that extra two/ten feet of elevation make a huge difference.
People dont know how to drive. Youd be surprised how many people cant drive in rain storms either. I live near 2 roundabouts and everytime we have a rainstorm someone will smash into them because they're trying to go full speed around them when it's raining sideways, they slip, and wreck something. I've seen idiots in sports cars slide sideways trying to take a corner at twice the speed they should be going because they domt realize how slippery it is, especially the first major rains after summer when the road is slick with the oil that mixes with the rain.
This is good info. Especially the piece on semis. Thanks for sharing!
sometimes it be visibility is so bad you can’t see the shoulder of the road, so you don’t know if there’s enough room to pull over
@@myphone9831 Here's a trick, slow down and feel the shoulders if it rumbles on the left it's the left shoulder you're on if it rumbles on the right it's the right shoulder. Please choose right whenever possible. Unless you have a physical handy cap that hinders the sense of feeling, then driving should be given to someone else in adverse road conditions.
I ran into one outside of El Paso. The most incredible thing I've ever seen. Fortunately I was near an exit an I pulled into a truck stop. The next morning, even with the windows rolled up, the inside of my truck and camper were covered with a film of dust.
I think the worst haboob I've been in was the one here in AZ back in 2008. We used to get them almost every year but they've died down in terms of numbers. It's hard to tell on camera, but when you're in the thick of it, it's a pretty dark red color...and if you're on the road and in a car, you're pulled over, clenching your cheeks, waiting for someone to hit you.
Thanks for sharing your story! I’d be scared to death pulled over during a dust storm.
Worst Haboob was 1971 in Phoenix, AZ as a child. There was purple in the storm when the lightning lite up. I went home horrified.
@@Servants_Heart lol damn
Sometimes there's like 100 lightning flashes per second but no sound...
@@maiyamay_ I'd be scared to keep driving during a dust storm
So the answer to the question posed is no. My home state of Arizona is in the middle of its wettest summer ever, yet we are still experiencing large dust storms, caused primarily by poor land use practices and over-development. Human stupidity and greed will, sadly, never end.
Well, experts we talked to feel like the question is still open. It's soooo good that there's been rain this year but the long term trends are worrisome and long term drought does lead to more exposed dust.
@@ElementalWildfire Of course they'll say the question is still open - if they didn't, no one would listen. I for one agree with Patrick. In California, they run aquifers virtually dry and "manage" nearly every drop of running water and blame cows in Oklahoma for their dry spell. Over-development, over-population, and mismanagement (aka management) of natural resources is far more relevant, but it's much easier to blame others then acknowledge that we're just doing it wrong, don't you think?
@@IAmNoggin I live in Arizona now because my former home in Paradise, California burned down . . . along with the entire freakin' town! Climate change? Nope. A criminally negligent corporation (PG&E), incoherent/dangerous land use planning, greed and plain old stupidity were the principal causes of this tragedy that cost 85 people their lives. Yes, climate change is real, but the impacts from it are, and will continue to be, exponentially magnified by the many other idiotic decisions we are making, and reducing carbon emissions will do nothing to remedy this behavior.
@@patrickfitzgerald2861 sorry to hear about the personal loss Patrick. I've heard some people mention that the super-rich would like the 99% to change their behavior so that they can keep doing what they want. So a corporation funding the lobbying for laws regulating our water use so they can use it. That would be an interesting investigation - what laws have PG&E lobbied for and how did it benefit them in Paradise.
@@IAmNoggin They were found criminally liable for the fire, but no one went to prison . . . no surprise.
I literally just read an article about this. I know overuse of the aquifer is contributing, but the other article also said people in this part of the country are planting more native grasses to help reduce this problem.
I was in Khartoum, Sudan, walking from the masjid to my apartment when a dust storm blew through. When it started, it got dark so fast that it caught me off guard. The wind whipped the sand through the air so fast that it stung my bare skin when it hit me. It felt like I was going to be blown over so I walked while leaning into the gusts. I tried to keep my face covered but some of the dust just blew through the cloth anyways. When I got back to the apartment, sand was in little piles under the door and around the windows. It was an amazing experience but a bit frightening for a few moments.
For a long time, I didn't realize the hidden meaning of sand storms and cornfields featured in the movie Interstellar. But instead of looking for the equation of anti-gravity, the practices in regenerative agriculture such as no-till cultivation, cover crops mix, and controlled grazing are solutions available today to mitigate the impact of soil degradation and erosion across the farmlands.
To be fair there was basically some magical disease that somehow was affecting all photosynthetic life (even though there is such a diversity that no real world pathogen could do that)
More of the Sci-fi magic which they use without explanation reason or any form of logic aside from "because plot demands it" Definitely the worst thing about that movie
@@Dragrath1 not necessarily. We know our biome diversity isn’t unimpeachable. Species are dying by the bucket load and we ignore the effect. We do not know at which point we tip the scale.
Also, dude it’s a movie. It’s not real. No scientific answer would have been sufficient to everyone because it hasn’t happened. It also wasn’t the goal of the film. It’s like you missed the point
Doug, I have a small farm, 30 acres. I tried no-till on a small section. Problem: No-till calls for herbicides to control weeds. Any suggestions?
@@Dragrath1 Practices in conventional farming such as monoculture and mechanical tillage promote the growth of pathogens, cause soil degradation and erosion, and lead to the reduction in crop yield. In contrast, practices in regenerative agriculture such as crop rotation, cover crops mix, and intercropping could be used to suppress weeds, control harmful bacteria and insects, while promote the beneficial ones through biodiversity. But those aspects probably won't be attractive or exciting enough as source materials in movie making and draw people to the theaters.
@@danpress7745 Depending on the moisture availability in your fields, the videos in the link below could give you ideas on what alternatives you could look for.
czcams.com/video/iFteNmEjmfU/video.html
czcams.com/video/zBvBzfeSeCE/video.html
We arrived at Minot AFB in August 1962. A few days after we got there we looked outside on what had been a pleasant day to see a wall of dust bearing down on us. We hurriedly closed all the windows but the dust got into the house anyway. Also, we were there two winters and experienced "snirt," a combination of snow and dirt that happens when the wind is strong enough to pick up dust from the fields but there is not enough snow to trap it. It's not a pretty thing to see brown snow falling. And we once had a mud storm when dust in the atmosphere mixed with a light rain to fall as dirty water.
Wow, that's fascinating.
Ohh poor soul. Minot is a place i hope to never visit again.
@@larcomj I have gone back for high-school reunions. And for no other reason.
Mudwalls in the Oklahoma panhandle were fairly regular, as we got sand from the West, and moisture from the south mixing.
Meteorology want any too robust 40 years ago, so line of site was about your only warning. I worked the oilfield, and as a derrickman I was often a 100+ feet in the air tripping pipe when they showed up. It was a scramble to get things shut down before one hit.
Then when you go home, your wife is as irritable as a sore tailed bear because she didn't get the clothes off the line, and everything has to be rewashed.
I'm not sure the world has more problems nowadays, or if we just have more access to what is going on. But I'm leaning towards the latter.
I used to live in Lubbock when I went to grad school at Texas Tech University. We had a big haboob in 2011 right after I got there. It hit right as I got to my car to go home and I had to sit for 45 minutes before I could leave the parking lot.
Lubbock also has what we called hazeboobs, dust storms that gradually got bad instead of with the wall of dust, but those happen almost daily. In Lubbock, there is more dust in the air than moisture, and it rains mud because of it.
I spent some time in Eastern Kuwait. Dust storms were fairly common place. One in particular stands out:
It was a beautiful (though HOT) day with no wind, clear blue skies and a blazing sun. I got a radio call from one of my coworkers advising me to look west. Sure enough, there was no west left to look at. A towering black wall, probably a mile high, spanned from horizon to horizon. We took appropriate action to inform everyone else to move to shelter. Then, just as the last group had reported that they were secure, a blast of wind swept across us. Sand in the air stung exposed skin like a thousand angry bees. Day turned to night. The sun, high in the Arabic sky, was undetectable. Then, in just a few moments, the wind was gone.
It was dark for hours, but the light gradually returned. Around 4pm one of the younger guys commented that the moon was particularly bright tonight. You should've seen his face when I explained to him that he was looking at the sun. We spent almost 8 hours frozen in place. Needless to say, our relief was late that day.
I remember getting caught in a bad sandstorm in Iraq. Our convoy pulled over to the side of the road because we couldnt see more than a few feet in front of us. I had to pee really bad, so i opened my truck door and the wind blew the door backwards nearly 180 degrees so it could no longer close properly. Trying to pee while getting sandblasted was.... interesting. I ended up using my boot lace to lash the door mostly shut. Storm lasted several hours, and most of the trucks were partially buried in the sand by the time it was over.
should've brought an emergency bottle
I was in the first year of my PhD program at Texas Tech in 2011 when the haboob featured in this piece hit. It slammed the entire region hard and fast and turned a sunny day dark as night for over an hour. I remember my oldest son yelling "Oh my god it's the apocalypse!" and my youngest running around yelling "APOPOLIPS! Don't pop my lips!" I lived in Lubbock for 10 years and saw plenty of dust storms. Nearly every spring we got them, and it wasn't uncommon to see a full third of the days labeled "dirt days" when visibility was low and you could get free dermabrasion just by going outside. On top of the dirt flying around, the wind kicked up tons of cotton defoliant the farmers used every winter. Environmental asthma was not uncommon and my youngest developed it. We recently moved to Oregon, and like magic the asthma has all but disappeared.
your children sound hilarious lol
Just re-watched film Interstellar… Though they never talked about humanity’s responsibility (my only complaint about the film), they showed dust storms and that the damage they were causing was ruining people’s lungs and on track to suffocating those left living…
Had agricultural practices and social structure not have improved since the 30's then we would already have suffered the consequences of the dust bowl era several times over in the last few years.
The saharan dust that crosses the Atlantic also suppresses hurricane activity during peak season sometimes.
Camped in my van in the Valley of the Gods, SE Utah I opened my door to step out for a run, shirtless, in the beautiful scenery. Stepping into the valley floor, I noticed sheets of virga rain evaporating far above the dry ground, directly ahead of me. I immediately jumped back in and tried to close the sliding door, but not before the wind had coated the inside of my van in 0.25" of fine red sand. Watching out the window for the next 15 minutes as the soil blew away, leaving only pea-sized stones and larger behind, was one of the most humbling experiences of my life.
It's fascinating how many natural disasters are good for the environment *when they occur naturally* .
It's like the wildfires in the US, which 89% of them are caused by people. Climate change is making the air in the summer hotter and dryer, too.
I’m used to driving in dust storms and knowing when to stop when a very strong one hits. It never gets old and I love the cool air it brings afterwards 😩
I've always been in town when they hit. There were a bunch of valley fever (fungal infection) stories in the media when I moved, so every time it would happen it would be a little bit of a rush to find a water source to wet down a bandana when I got off the train or left my apartment. Since I wasn't driving, they were kind of cool to watch from inside.
My friend's dog died of valley fever in Tucson about six months after a haboob. A lot of people don't understand they should bring in their pets. Thee last dust storm I was in was a few years ago in Vegas Valley. It wasn't as much of a brown out as the ones I experienced in Arizona, but I saw a woman who was walking around in the middle of it with her uncovered infant. My heart sank. There really needs to be more education about valley fever.
Valley Fever has been problematic for over a decade in Kern County, California. Scary scary disease.
The same masks that protect you from Covid 19 should be highly effective against valley fever and other choking events. I found it very weird that we have a huge stockpile of atomic bombs, but no stockpile of masks. At the start of the pandemic masks were almost impossible to come by. Now i find another important reaon to have these available.
I lived in Lubbock, TX, for 22 years and worked for Texas Tech University Department of Biological Sciences. I went through several haboobs. The dirt just about killed my lungs even though I was wearing a mask while outside, decades before pandemic. Combined with the dirt/dust was the exponentially horrible feed lot funk coming from east of town that didn't just smell; it burned my skin. I'm a native Texan and can say without hesitation it's a horrible place to "live." I moved away in 2013 to Seattle. My lungs are slowly healing and I no longer need an inhaler.
what kind of mask were you wearing? did it have carbon filters?
I drove many hours on the freeway across New Mexico and Arizona in a dust storm blowing directly at me. I saw many cars at the side of the road, but I didn't get that hint. I drove on at high speed into a strong headwind full of sand and dust. I made it through the dust storm, but with poor gas mileage due to fighting the headwind, a dust filled engine air filter, a pitted windshield from etching by sand, areas of the car's paint that looked like somebody used sand-paper on the leading edges, and too much inhaled fine dust particles. In my defense, I was an inexperienced teenager from the rainy parts of Oregon. It was a good learning experience, and I never imagined a dust storm could be that huge with that consistently strong of a wind.
I live in Lubbock about 30 mins from Lamesa, and it’s a few times a year we get haboobs. The worst one happened when I was in high school driving on the highway with my dad. Couldn’t see 2 feet in front of me and was completely dark outside once the wall hit us. It’s a wild experience that you have to experience firsthand to understand.
That sounds wild! Zero visibility would freak me out. Glad you guys made it out safe 🙌🏽
I have seen more hazy skies and dust events here near Dallas in the past 12 months than I have in my entire life before this.
In western Kansas, we occasionally had dust storms roll through when I was young. They smelled terrible, and you DEFINITELY don't want to be caught out in them. The dust would make you cough horribly for the rest of the day. As soon as you saw them coming, you'd just run home (or back into the school), and make sure all windows were closed. They usually faded in about an hour.
I haven't been in a dust storm like these but in 1969 we were driving just outside of Palm Springs CA, when a sand storm hit out of no where. We pulled over and it lasted about 10 minutes. The inside of the car was coated in sand and when we got out to check on the car the paint was completely sand blasted and pitted not to mention the glass was finely pitted. Also I'd like to point out that when they say turn off your lights it's because you don't want the drivers behind you to think that where you are (on the shoulder) is the road. But of course as others have said, then you then have to sit just waiting to be rear-ended.
I remember two times in my life when we had dust storms from the Sahara reach all the way up to the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe, one just three or four years ago. By the time they reach here, they are really just like regular clouds high in the sky and don't interfere with visibility.
But they block a lot of sunlight like storm clouds, and you can still see the sun as a big red circle in the sky that barely seems to glow.
I remember one in Maastricht, the south of the Netherlands. The sand of the Sahara was coming down, it was a bit creepy. When it was gone everything was covered in a thin layers of fine sand. I think it was reddish, but I’m not sure. The color was different however that the sand I’m used to.
They are common in the Black Rock Desert. I've been in several white outs, and been in the haboob front as it rolled in. It's wild and exhilarating. It didn't occur to me that the winds would be forced out sideways. That explains a lot.
There used to be a saying back then “rain follows the plow”, so they actually thought plowing would make it rain, thus furthering the problem
I just cannot get enough of this channel! They're short enough to keep interest but packed full of information that is easy to follow and understand. Keep up the great work!!!
I live in AZ, and most of the ones I can remember have been pretty tame, a light haze with visibility reduced to a few hundred feet. Generally it's enough to slow down on the freeway, occasionally its enough to make you really nervous driving, but the biggest effect is always dust getting in your eyes and lungs. There was one around 2008 though that was absolutely insane, visibility dropped to almost nothing, like a thick fog, it got dark, and afterwards there was thick layers of dirt caked on absolutely everything.
I was driving to New Mexico for a funeral. Driving on highway 40, I started to see a huge cloud of what looked like dust. I had never experienced a dust storm before. But had seen them on TV. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Once I realize it was a dust storm and that it was unsafe to keep driving under those conditions, I safely pulled over until the storm had passed.
What was even more freaky than experiencing a dust storm, was how fast people kept driving throw the storm. Visibility was very poor and yet drivers could go any faster! Unbelievable but true!
Was caught in one outside Phoenix June 2021. First time I've experienced the actual power of a dust storm since I could feel the car moving even when parked, and could smell/taste the dirt with all windows up, vents closed & AC/fan off. It was really scary, the car sliding further off the road.
Started storming in the middle of this ordeal so we had mud caked in all the cracks & crevices when we could finally see the impact.
Don't want to go thru that again.
Back when I lived in the Abu Dhabi, UAE, they were some dust storms that would come and while they aren't frequent they were somewhat common since the Arabian desert is right next to us. It was always very annoying to be outside when a dust storm hit as your nose and eyes and mouth get affected in a bad way. So i would avoid going outside whenever it hit.
My first time dust storm experience went like this:
Me, my mom and my little brother were on a week long vacation in Utah, we went to a natural warm spring to relax, and we had been in the spring for about 7 hours or so when the wind started to pick up. We thought nothing of it since we thought it almost always was windy in Utah, after a couple of minutes we realized there was dust on the wind. We made a beeline for a natural alcove in the rock wall and hid there with 2 other people also hiding from the dust storm. I then remembered that my mom had left the windows halfway open in the truck so that my little bro (who was fast asleep at that point in the truck) wouldn't overheat. After i told her that, she flipped out and hauled ass toward the truck, dragging me along with her. We fought through a wall of dust and managed to make it into the truck with only minor injuries (that being a bruise and scrape on my moms shin from stumbling and a minor cut on my forehead from getting clocked on the head from running into the side view mirror) she started the truck and rolled up the windows. after we wiped the dust off ourselves,we looked around the interior of the truck and were shocked at how dusty it was. It was at least a couple of centimeters thick, and when we looked at ourselves we busted up in laughter, we were CAKED in dust head to toe. Since we both need glasses to see, when we took them off, we looked like a pair of raccoons.
We learned a lesson that day: NEVER go for a drive before checking the weather beforehand!!!😅
When I was maybe 9 or 10 my family was driving back from Texas to Los Angeles and the highway patrol diverted everyone off the freeway because a dust storm had just come through and there was a pileup of cars. We were probably an hour or so to El Paso. I was pretty happy because we ended up staying in a motel instead of driving all night.
There were 2 or 3 haboobs that happened in the interior of São Paulo (Brasil) this week, and also in the Northeast of the country. Updrafts moved the dust from the bare crop soils and in one instance, killed 4 people. Once these areas were lush rainforests, but now are becoming deserts.
Lived through a few of these in West Texas. Didn't realize it was a unique thing since it was just part of life for me. Sucks to be in one but not indoors though. The dust scratches your skin pretty bad, and the wind gusts are scary powerful. Stay indoors if you ever see one coming. Although, they do produce great sunsets.
Same here but been an Arizonan my whole life, dust storms are so normal here (i guess I’m just not realizing it’s not normal) and droughts, we’ve had many people die just from the heat here.
Yea here in Lubbock Texas- I remember my first one I looked outside a garage window at work and it was maybe 100 yards away. We thought it was a tornado from our view so we RAN to the only solid structure in the warehouse.the restroom made of centerblocks. Everyone else only saw 2 guys running like hell and after it passed Everyone made fun of us. It was hilarious. But to this day if you have no clue what the loud noise is and you look out and see things in the air that shouldn't be there you would have ran too . Ain't nobody got time to be sucked into the air!
I've only been in one when I was like 10 y/o in Colorado. My parents kept telling me to stay inside and not go back out but I was interested to see what was going on. I threw on a half-face respirator, tightened it up, and threw on some cheap scientific safety goggles I had n ran around in my backyard. I thought it was the coolest thing
So early in my career with the Marines I saw a few dustorms, first one was in the schoolhouse at 29 Palms. It was eerie as the usually bright sun was blotted out by sand and dust. It stung your face and got in your eyes if you didn't have proper cover and that day was a pretty mild. A few years later, I'm part of a Field Op at Camp Wilson (where we go training for a few weeks or months at a time) which was of course in 29 Palms. We get hit with another one that actually bad enough to start causing our vics to break down. Not something I'd want to deal with on the regular...
Be kind to others, be kind to yourself, and be kind to the planet 🌎
Agreed ❤️
That sounds and looks exactly like blizzards up here in Canada, only brown. I've never seen anything like it! (I mean, I'm definitely not in a desert area, so that makes sense, but WOAH.)
Experienced several dust storms this year, right after the fields had been freshly tilled and prepped for planting. Has to be a smarter way to plant then leaving bare topsoil exposed
No till drill.
wetting it down would be smart, btu not possible in large field scenarios, unless under pivot irrigation
Check with your local County Extension office,they usually have the latest in ideas from area Ag.Colleges.
@@tlockerk why didn't I think of that, now if I could only convince the neighbors in a 5 mile radius to follow any of those ideas.
Hats off to you stranger!
The best part is when the dust storm gets rain and turns into a mud storm. When my grandparents lived in Lubbock in the 60s there was a mud storm and they love to mention it to me to this day
Calling this a drought is living in denial that we are now facing DESERTIFICATION
I saw one of those in person. I was in a massive dust storm. A big wall of dust. Frightening.
I grew up in west Texas (my grandma always said that town name as "La-MAY-sah" haha) but I don't recall a lot of dust storms. Though, that WAS a long time ago, back in the 1980s.
I did however get really familiar with the kinds of gusting storms that are common (at least for the Permian Basin) in fall and spring. Not just the thunderstorms, and not necessarily the kinds of supercells that can spawn tornadoes, but these were kind of a "sound and fury" storm that was almost all wind, no rain, and very little lightning. They would come up fast and go away fast, and certainly they'd throw around whatever light particles were available. Possibly because I was inside a city area with lots of lawns and so forth, I just don't remember much dust. I do remember though, a teacher of mine having to wear a dust mask whenever the weather was like that; it was the first time I heard the word Asthma.
The biggest worry I heard from the adults around me, when the winds were high and it was hot, had to do with fire. I think y'all may have discussed grass fires or prairie fires here before, but they are VERY scary. They move extremely fast, the grass burns quickly and hot, and wind just makes them that much faster and hotter. So folks back in Midland tended to be far more focused on making sure fire bans were enforced, and on being as prepared as possible.
I had never heard the word "haboob" before this video though. I'd seen references to simoom and cirocco, though I guess those are different types of wind storms? And "kamiseen," but that word was in a fantasy novel and could be 100% made up of course!
I live in Central Washington, we get them every Summer. I have pictures of massive dust walls coming off the outer valley, going up the surrounding hills, and billowing off the tops spreading the dust everywhere in the inner valley. It's kinda cool but also kinda terrifying.
Everything that has happened in the past can and will happen again - famine, depression, dust bowl, world wars, and desertification, and finally extinction. Lesson: don't get too comfortable.
Twenty years ago, my Little Wife and I lived in Albuquerque, NM where there were occasional dust storms. Children in the elementary schools were kept indoors, for both health reasons, and the fear that they would get blown off the playground !!
I've been caught in a few, all while I was on the road during my usual commute (it went past miles of farmland). One time there was like no visibility, it was very unsettling and I was caught in the middle lane so I didn't even want to pull over (I couldn't see where the cars were around me). The second time the visibility wasn't as bad and I just followed the car in front of me. The third was very short, like ten seconds of driving through a wall of dirt. There were a couple other times but the dust wasn't that thick and didn't really hamper visibility much.
We had a major dust storm yesterday in South Dakota and Nebraska. Tornados were also produced out of this front. The dust storm was super dangerous for drivers, uprooted trees, downed power lines and damaged homes. Two confirmed tornadoes destroyed homes and buildings in smaller communities. Many are still without power today and it covered nearly 200 miles west to east and about 150 miles north to south before moving on to Minnesota.
I live in Amsterdam, so I have never experienced one. They seem terrifying though. Love this series! Keep up the good work!
Thank you so much! Glad you’re enjoying the series. Hope you learned a lot from this one 🙌🏽
They're really not as scary as they look. If you've ever driven in thick fog then you know somewhat what it's like. The only difference is it's possible for visibility to drop to zero and in that case as long as you pull over and turn your lights off then you're pretty safe (though there is always that feeling that some moron will come plowing into you, which is why you turn your lights off). It's not like in the movies where it's total chaos inside them, it's actually pretty serene. Well, until you get to the back end and everything turns into mud lol.
As someone with severe allergies, this whole video makes me nervous. I find it hard to breathe and feel itchy with bad air pollution 😔😔
When I used to live in Arizona I encountered a few haboobs. Another reason not to drive is that it can clog up your air filter. Make sure to check and change it if you do end up driving in one.
I was once driving from Tucson to Phoenix and a haboob started up behind me, and I drove probably 50 miles almost constantly looking in my rear view mirror. There’s no a lot of places to pull over on that highway and I didn’t want to be caught in it. Luckily I made it to Phoenix safely.
The saddest part of this story is arriving in Phoenix. D: Glad you made it tho!
We had a severe duststorm in New South Wales. Sydney woke to a red tinged dawn. Friends in New Zealand complained that the dust reached them a day later.
January 2021 driving back from Denver to northern Kentucky on I-70E. They closed the highway from just outside Denver and into Kansas. I had to go take back roads to head east with 2 young kids. The visibility was limited but not horrible. There was one area the side road that suddenly was a massive amount of dust going under a bridge. I sowed to almost a crawl and put on my hazard lights. It was one of the scariest things I’ve driven in and my first experience with dust storms. Thankfully that little area was only 30 seconds of driving before you could see through it again. I have a new respect for all that dust, dirt and wind. We don’t have dust storms in northern Kentucky.
I was in a dust storm outside Lordsburg, New Mexico on the way to Tucson. We were on a highway with a fair amount of traffic. As the passenger, I was looking at the scenery, a dust devil in the distance, and then, suddenly, the windows, windshield, were covered. The driver pulled off to the side behind a semi, and then (to my horror) pulled back out to follow another semi that passed us, and we safely made it to Tucson.
I was in one in the Pilbara region of Australia the red wall of dust turned black as it passed over a stretch of recently burned scrubland. The front that kicked up the dust also bought rain which fell as mud.
this "Dust Bowl" will definitely be worse for society than the last. with the drought raging in California and no wpa/ccc to provide jobs, there'll be no economic escape
The world has gotten smaller in terms of living space. I don't know if we will have as much breathing room this time than we did last time.
We used to have these on occasion when I lived in the Coachella Valley from 2007-10. You could try to seal up your car or house, but it didn't matter. The sand was so fine that you breathed it in (I got walking pneumonia from it once) and had gritty teeth, sand in your ears/house/car and a light sandy film on EVERYTHING for almost a week after. It SUCKED!
My family and I lived in Castelvolturno and you could see the dust storms coming hours before we were hit. You learn to close your villas doors and put towels down at the bottom of your French doors and be prepared to clean up after the event
A few friends and I got stuck skating in Tempe in a Haboob. T'was a wild time indeed. The wind gusts would push us off our line by a solid 4 to 6 feet. I saw my friend in front of me get pushed diagonally (more horizontally) as we tried to hurry back to one of our apartments. Street signs were bending over, light pole's swaying back and forth, tree's unrooting, branches snapping, and us surviving through the mess. With a good jacket, and going in the right direction, you can catch some of the wind like sailing lol.
Feels like we are reliving the 20th century and for more than a few reasons.
I was in a desert sandstorm while horsebackriding in the early 70's. Nowhere near as bad or as long as these, but I had to get off my horse and bury my face in his neck until it passed. It was pretty scary, but fortunately the horse remained calm and supported me.
Driving through Nevada 2 years ago, thankfully only partially obscured view and traffic was able to continue at a snails pace.
Northeastern Arkansas, summer of 1974. Initially, we noticed storm clouds approaching from the west. Wind started picking up, and a mile high wall of dust came into view. The dust clouds were boiling. It looked demented and extremely violent. We were traveling in two cars, and pulled off until it passed. A layer of fine dust was deposited everywhere throughout each vehicle. We heard there were also tornados, but luckily they missed us.
I live in Phoenix, Arizona. I see these storms all the time during the summers but the biggest one I ever see was in July 2010. The whole city was covered in dust, I ve never seen so much dirt coverage before... It took like a month to clear it off the streets... There are many video on you tube showing this storm..
Las Vegas, early July 2002: We were out on the town during the day, and got into a taxi in mid-afternoon, enroute back to our hotel. On the way home, the taxi driver said we were in for a dust storm, and wanted to get us back inside before that. We did not experience the dust storm outside. However, by the time we took the elevator up to our high floor and into our hotel room, we watched the entire Las Vegas strip be engulfed in a thick cloud of dust all the way up to our floor, and maybe above. It was amazing for us mid-westerners to see a modern-day dust storm, but the locals take them in stride.
Yes, I have been in a dust storm. It was very dusty! I was living in the Delta in Mississippi surrounded by cotton fields. A dust storm blew up and I tethered myself to an irrigation well as it continued on it's course. i also had to cover my mouth and nose with my shirt during the dust storm. I remember dirt and sand 2-3 feet up the side of my tractor tire. Sand and dirt was in my hair, ears, and my pants pockets.
1930s: the dust bowl
2020s: and well do it again!
This answered literally every question ive ever had about these
Yes new weathered
That’s right!
Saw my first in Az in 1998 when I first moved here. Was wondering what had I done moving here. It was followed by monsoon rain and mud pies on my car.
Twice, once in the 1960s in Austin TX and again in the mid-1970s in Denton TX. Never quite so bad I couldn't see the road, but bad enough I was sorry I had decided to go horse riding. The first time was before I could drive, barely, I might've been 14 or 15, the other when I was in college and taking a horse riding class. I might not've driven then either, I think it was before I got my graduation gift - a car.
When i lived on the island of Gozo, Malta in 2017-18, Saharan dust would blow onto the island constantly. We would sweep red dust from floors weekly it was crazy
Southeastern Brazil just experienced events like these for the first time. We got really scared, indeed
In NW Iowa 2016. A dust storm blew in from Bismarck, ND
I would love if she did a deep dive into the "polar vortex" as they are now dubbing cold weather from the arctic and northern Canada. Love the videos!!
Love the branding on the shirt and hat. Weathered should look at other unique weather events. Like Thundersnow, Derechos, and Polar Vortex's
Phoenix, 2011, one of the biggest dust storms in Phoenix history. We were visiting Phoenix, considering it as a potential retirement location. My husband and I had gone to a local grocery and walked out into an eerie, alternate planet. It was truly disorienting! We could not see 5 feet in front of us and what we could see was colorless, and without much detail. The dust was suffocating. We are from the high deserts of Southern California and I’ve frequently been in dust storms where sand and even small gravel is hurled by high winds. Within the haboob, however, the dust was suspended, simply hovering in the air around us, like a fog. We pulled out t-shirts up over our nose and mouth and made our way to our car. Driving back to our rental was truly terrible. We weren’t familiar with area to start with and shrouded in the dense dust it was vey difficult. We made it and it was quite an adventure but definitely very surreal!
I've been in super thick fog where you cannot see the road at all and people will stubbornly keep driving through it. I am not surprised there was a massive pile up during a dust storm. I wouldn't even feel safe just pulling over out of fear some idiot will keep on driving and not see me by the side of the road.
We experienced one of these storms in 2014 while in Sparks Nevada & we were in a motorhome. I grew up in Sparks & in the desert & have never experienced one before.
We were in West Texas West bound to New Mexico in the early 1960's when we got hit by a dust/sand storm. Our car was ok but cars coming from the west had the paint sanded off one side and glass frosted too. Paint doesn't last long in that type of weather.
Permaculture. We used to get dust storms in the 70s and 80s. I can remember running to close the windows because you can see the haze coming. at night the lights get a ring around them if I remember right. Then we didn't have them anymore. NE Oklahoma and we lived in town. There was a big move in contouring farmland and pastures to stop top soil loss. I was driving down the road once in the country and it looked like smoke but a guy south of the highway was plowing or discing and it was all blowing north. I had to roll up my window when I drove through it. It was pretty intense and the worst part was that all of his top soil was blowing downwind onto everyone else's land.
Haven't but have seen them on the news and see how terrifying they are.
Ive been in one of these "brown outs" many times. It can be pretty scary.
In the late 70's drove through a sand storm in Nevada. Destroyed the car. Windshield and all leading edges were sand blasted. Air filter was packed. Expensive lesson.
I am surprised they don't have alarms for dust storms here in Phoenix considering they happen every year.
More and more dust storm are occurring in the United States 🇺🇸. I am trying to reverse desertification here in our Desert land in Antelope Valley. Hopefully the community see what we are doing and mimic our vision 🙏
I was watching about 1977 Bakersfield California dust storm right now had to do more research on this
Had to deal with Haboobs while in a steelyard in New Mexico with unsecured metal sometimes. Usually we sat in a car or got into a building if we couldn't finish securing things but I remember one time we were caught by surprise and had to strap down some Aluminum Sheets during the storm. Few of us damn near got decapitated that day because the wind caught another sheet that was across the yard. We all gained a nice tan until we showered though.
I remember this happening when I was a kid in Tempe back in the 90s.... 😨 I stayed indoors that day
Yup was in a Dust Storm while visiting friends in Dubai, It was WILD. And definitely something I wouldn't want to experience on a regular basis back home in the U.S.
I was in a dust storm in 1982 going to Yume Az from El CentroCa. It got so bad I had to torn on my flashers and drive 20 mph. I can hear cars and trucks crashing all around me. The visibility was 0. This waste most terrifying day of my life
Went through a dust storm last year on Labor Day in East Central Washington (between the town of Ritzville and city of Moses Lake on I-90). Luckily most everyone on the freeway slowed to a crawl with their hazard lights on as visibility stayed around 10-15 feet and only occasionally was reduced to 0 for a few seconds. In hindsight I should’ve pulled off the freeway and waited for the storm to pass, but I was trying to get back to Seattle for work the next day.
Ah, Dustbowl, quite the classic map.