Phoenix Visited by a giant dust storm

Phoenix Visited by a giant dust storm

The afternoon storm in the Tucson area has resulted into a massive dust storm over the Phoenix valley on Tuesday night. According to radar data acquired, the storm created a dust wall that was nearly 2 miles high or 8,000 to 10,000 feet, which towered over the skyscrapers downtown and covered the area around nightfall and has spread northwest through Phoenix and the cities of Avondale, Tempe and Scottsdale.

The National Weather Service meteorologist Paul Iniguez, mentioned that, “This was pretty significant. We heard from a lot of people who lived here for a number of storms and this was the worst they'd seen." The dust storm caused reduced visibility, therefore delaying flights.

According to the federal Aviation Administration flights to Phoenix weren’t allowed to leave Las Vegas of Los Angeles airports until 9 pm. And because of the strong winds it brought which were recorded to be more than 60 mph trees and live wires were downed causing fire at a busy intersection and power outages for thousands of residents in the valley.

Due to this, several communities were under the severe thunderstorm watch until 11 pm.  The storm was said to be still part of monsoon season in Arizona, which typically starts in mid-June and lasts through Sept. 30.

Posted by James Fried on Wednesday July 06 2011, 1:22 PM EST. Ref: Google News. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0