{"id":111292,"date":"2025-08-26T13:01:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T13:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/111292\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T13:01:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T13:01:06","slug":"towering-wall-of-dust-rolls-through-metro-phoenix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/111292\/","title":{"rendered":"Towering wall of dust rolls through metro Phoenix"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">PHOENIX &#8212; A powerful storm kicked up a towering wall of dust that rolled through metro Phoenix on Monday, darkening the sky, blinding drivers, knocking out power and grounding flights at one of the nation\u2019s busiest airports. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Bernae Boykin Hitesman was driving her son and daughter, ages 9 and 11, home from school when the storm, known as a haboob, arrived late in the afternoon in Arizona City, about 60 miles (95 kilometers) southeast of Phoenix.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">She had to quickly pull over as the storm engulfed her car. \u201cI couldn\u2019t see my hand in front of my face if I put my hand outside,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Boykin Hitesman said she could taste the dust and feel the strong wind rattling her car until it finally passed about 15 minutes later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cI was nervous,\u201d she said. \u201cMy kids were really, really scared, so I was trying to be brave for them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">A haboob is a dust storm pushed by the wind produced by a weather front or thunderstorm and typically occurs in flat, arid areas. Heavy rain and wind followed Monday&#8217;s haboob, delaying flights at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and causing some damage to a terminal roof. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cCrews have been identifying leaks and attempting to clean up water where it has collected in passenger areas,\u201d Heather Shelbrack, the airport\u2019s deputy aviation director for public relations, said in an email. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">More than 15,000 people lost power, most in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, according to <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"http:\/\/poweroutage.us\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">PowerOutage.us<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Richard Filley, a retired university professor who lives in Gilbert, said the dust storm caused the trees to sway and knocked bird feeders to the ground. Fine dust found its way through \u201cevery little crack and space\u201d into his house, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cThe windstorm part of it, I\u2019m glad it\u2019s gone,\u201d he said. \u201cYou look at the photos of haboobs and they are a spectacular natural phenomenon. They are kind of beautiful in their own way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Phoenix has been drier than usual during the monsoon season, while parts of southeast and north-central Arizona have had a fair amount of rain, said Mark O\u2019Malley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Phoenix.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cBut that\u2019s typical for a monsoon, very hit and miss,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The forecast for metro Phoenix calls for a 40% chance of rain Tuesday before drying out, O\u2019Malley said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">____<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Golden reported from Seattle. Associated Press writer Felicia Fonseca contributed reporting from Flagstaff, Arizona.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX &#8212; A powerful storm kicked up a towering wall of dust that rolled through metro Phoenix on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[72865,966,1685,192,793,3774,79,34470,795,2986],"class_list":{"0":"post-111292","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-72865","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-climate-and-environment","11":"tag-environment","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-power-outages","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-storms","16":"tag-u-s-news","17":"tag-weather"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}