What the heck is a haboob? Hint: you can see them from space
What causes these insane blasts of dusty catastrophe? (NOAA/)“Apocalyptic” might as well have been the forecast for Lubbock, Texas, on June 5, 2019.Around 6 p.m. that day, the local National Weather Service warned of an inbound rush of dust-laden, 60-mile-per-hour winds and severe thunderstorm, altogether deemed an “extremely dangerous situation.” Within an hour, Lubbock residents received their first dust storm warning in five years and the motorists among them were advised: “Pull aside, stay alive.” A haboob—an enormous, storm-born front of dust—was on its way.Matthew Cappucci, a meteorologist for The Washington Post, found himself face-to-face with the haboob. “Within seconds, it was on me,” Cappucci describes. “I was sandblasted, grains still lodged in my eyes, nose, and ears 18 hours later. I returned to the refuge of my vehicle as 60 to 70 mph winds buffeted what seconds before had been a tranquil, picturesque scene.” Cappucci goes on to recount...