Giant dust storm sweeps across metro Phoenix
Photo by Rob Schumacher/The Arizona RepublicThe haboob, over 5,000 feet high, approaches the Phoenix metro area near sunset. It has been determined to be the largest dust storm in the area for the past fifty years.
PHOENIX, AZ - Shortly after 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday July 5, 2011 a dust storm, known as a haboob, towering more that 5,000 feet high swept across the Sonoran Desert south of Phoenix. Over the next one hour and forty-five minutes the Phoenix Fire Department Regional Dispatch Center would be placed under maximum pressure and demand once again.
The first indication of trouble, other than radar and weather reports came when the City of Casa Grande requested mutual aid coverage into their city. Engine 572 from Maricopa was dispatched but within minutes they reported they were stopped dead in the road due to zero visibility. The haboob had reached Maricopa.
The population concentration of the Phoenix metro area was only 15 minutes away. Soon call loads spiked in Chandler, Tempe, south and central Phoenix and the south side of Scottsdale. Dispatchers were called back from lunch breaks as all hands were placed on deck. Dispatchers were so busy they could barely take note of the storm as it blasted by outside the windows. What could be seen was dust flying by at near hurricane speed and one set of lights in the parking lot just a few feet from the building.
By 9:00 p.m. it was mostly over. The communications center had handled 720 phone calls which generated 365 incidents entered into the dispatch computer. Currently, the average number of incidents entered in a twenty-four hour period is 1,050.
No information from the author.