Phoenix literally bites the dust

This didn’t make the evening news here in Texas last night, though it would have made for an interesting change of pace.  Courtesy of Deborah Byrd at EarthSky.org:

A wall of dust moved through Phoenix, Arizona Tuesday night (July 5, 2011), with sustained winds of around 60 miles per hour, close to hurricane force, according to KNXV-TV in Phoenix. At one point, wind gusts hit 81 mph in a Phoenix suburb.

The dust wall—commonly called a haboob—is a common sight in Phoenix, but not like this wall, which Phoenix residents said was one for the record books. The cloud stretched 60 miles wide, and turned the normally sunny skies of Phoenix literally black.

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