A haboob (Arabic: هَبوب, romanized: habūb, lit. ’blasting/drifting’) is a type of intense dust storm carried on an atmospheric gravity current, also known as a weather front. Haboobs occur regularly in dry land area regions throughout the world.
Like haboobs that occur in the Middle East, haboob occurrences in North America are often created by the collapse of a thunderstorm. This is a local or mesoscale event, and at times of extreme drought they can originate in agricultural regions.
“Some of the most famous dust storms of the Dust Bowl and similar conditions later were in fact synoptic scale events typically generated by a strong cold frontal passage, with 14 April 1935, 9–11 May 1934, 19 February 1954, and 11 November 1911 being particularly vivid examples.”
The arid and semiarid regions of North America—in fact, any dry region—may experience haboobs. In North America, the most common terms for these events are either dust storm or sandstorm. In the U.S., they frequently occur in the deserts of Arizona, including around the cities of Yuma and Phoenix;[5][6] in New Mexico, including Albuquerque; in eastern California, and in Texas.[7] They also sometimes occur in the Columbia Basin, of Eastern Washington, almost always leading to an impact with the city of Spokane. If the storms are strong enough, they can reach as far east as Post Falls and Moscow, in North Idaho. (wikipedia)
