Updated on
Summary A giant wall of dust was rolling through the Phoenix area on turning the sky brown.
It created dangerous driving conditions and delayed some airline flights.The dust storm, also known as a haboob in Arabic and around Arizona, formed in Pinal County and headed northeast for Phoenix.The dust wall was about 3,000 feet (900 meters) high and created winds of 25 to 30 mph (40 to 48 kph), with gusts of up to 40 mph (64 kph), said Austin Jamison, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Visibility was down to less than a quarter-mile (400 meters) in some areas, he said.You have suddenly very poor visibilities that come on with all the dense dust in the air, he said. With poor visibilities, that makes for dangerous driving conditions and thats arguably the biggest impact.There were no immediate reports of accidents on roadways because of the storm, and the Arizona Department of Public Safety did not immediately return a request for information about road conditions.Some departing flights at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport were delayed because of the storm, said airport spokeswoman Julie Rodriguez.
