Towering wall of dust rolls through metro Phoenix, leaving thousands without power

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By ROSS FRANKLIN and HALLIE GOLDEN
Updated 3:09 AM CDT, August 26, 2025

PHOENIX (AP) — 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’s busiest airports.

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.

She had to quickly pull over as the storm engulfed her car. “I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face if I put my hand outside,” she said.

Boykin Hitesman said she could taste the dust and feel the strong wind rattling her car until it finally passed about 15 minutes later.



Read more: https://apnews.com/article/arizona-dust-storm-haboob-ca6e25fe03c724f298e3f1e3a736fdd9

[riversedge]

1. OMG!! That is freaky!!

[underpants]

8. Yes we have a video (s)

?si=xO2nLlOTJETAk0Nn

Rolling into the airport with on ground footage as it rolls over them.

?si=_Zu48lHJLibGNs26

[Srkdqltr]

2. Thrill of living in the desert.

[Botany]

3. Awesome images

[Bengus81]

4. Several pics from the Dust bowl days that look exactly like this.

[ananda]

10. My grandfather farmed in the panhandle during the depression.

He was ruined and had to drive the family to Hillsboro.

Since they were driving through dust, they had to protect
the baby (my uncle) with wet masks.

Life was really hard for them -- farming in Texas. When
my dad graduated from high school, he got a job with
the CCC to help support the family.

The New Deal literally saved their lives. My grandmother
said they thought Roosevelt was God because he kept
them from starving to death.

And yet, every last one of her direct descendants (except
me and my siblings because we were raised Irish Catholic
by a liberal Democrat mother) is a Magat today.

Go figure.

[cbabe]

5. Dust bowl blues

https://m.

[Sequoia]

6. "A dust storm hit, and it hit like thunder

It dusted us over and covered us under .." Woody Guthrie

[Marthe48]

7. Nature will take care of Herself

Humans may destroy the habitat they could live in, and go extinct, but Earth will continue. Humans are so puny.

[Bayard]

9. Holy Crap!

Looks like something out of, "The Mummy."

[OldBaldy1701E]

11. I need to call my friends in Phoenix back.

I have not heard from them since they told me that it was coming.

[TygrBright]

12. Haboobs are becoming a fact of life in the Southwest. n/t

[Texin]

13. Oh, goody. A return to the Dust Bowl days of yore. It's just shifted a bit to the west.

[markodochartaigh]

14. I remember dust storms from growing up in

Amarillo. The street lights would come on. After the storm some cars wouldn't start because the batteries had shorted out. I wonder if electric cars have problems with the dust.

[maspaha]

15. It was a classic haboob followed by rain to wash away the dust

I was exchanging a rental car when it hit.

[Igel]

16. I haven't been through one this size.

Haven't been to Arizona in over a decade, and not at the right time for years before that.

This isn't an aberration, except maybe for size. Haboobs happen.

Dust bowl, it ain't. (And most of the orange groves are paved over from my first visit there in '72. Still, the agriculture don't much care. Haboob and monsoons are correlated.)