PHOENIX — A towering wall of dust rolled through metro Phoenix on Monday with storms that left tens of thousands of people without power and temporarily grounded flights at the city airport.
About 39,000 people were without power in Arizona, most of whom were in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, according to PowerOutage.us.
Motorists hurried home through strong winds and rain as the dust storm, commonly referred to as a haboob, approached. Haboobs are associated with collapsing thunderstorms and strong winds and can make driving on roads nearly impossible.
The haboob cut visibility to a quarter-mile across metro Phoenix but had cleared up by Monday evening. Phoenix has been drier than usual during the summer rainy season, while parts of southeast and north-central Arizona have had a fair amount of rain, said Mark O’Malley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Phoenix.
“But that’s typical for a monsoon, very hit and miss,” he said.
The forecast for metro Phoenix calls for a 40% chance of rain Tuesday before drying out, O’Malley said.
The Arizona Department of Transportation wrote in a post on the social platform X that people should not drive into a dust storm, “But if you’re on the road when one hits, PULL ASIDE, STAY ALIVE!”
Planes at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport were temporarily grounded due to “extreme weather,” Heather Shelbrack, the airport’s deputy aviation director for public relations, said in an email. By Monday evening, the ground stop had been lifted, with flights delayed about 15 to 30 minutes.
Traffic lights were also out in neighboring Gilbert, and the storm toppled trees across town, according to the city’s police department.
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Golden reported from Seattle. Associated Press writer Felicia Fonseca contributed reporting from Flagstaff.