Towering Haboob Plunges Phoenix into Darkness, Grounds Flights and Knocks Out Power

PHOENIX, Ariz.-On Monday evening, a monumental dust storm-commonly known as a haboob-rolled through the Phoenix metropolitan area, reducing visibility to mere feet, grounding flights at Sky Harbor International Airport, and leaving tens of thousands without electricity.

At about 6:15 p.m., a wall of sand and dust, driven by outflow winds from collapsing thunderstorms, advanced northward into the city, prompting the National Weather Service to issue a Dust Storm Warning. Motorists were urged to “pull aside, stay alive” as visibility plunged to as low as 50 feet.

Within minutes, severe thunderstorm warnings followed, with wind gusts reported up to 60 mph in parts of southeast Phoenix. At Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, operations were halted before 6:30 p.m. local time; flights remained grounded for roughly one hour and departure delays of 15-30 minutes persisted late Monday night.

PowerOutage.us logged outages affecting more than 60,000 customers across Maricopa County in the wake of the storm. In Gilbert-about 22 miles southeast of downtown Phoenix-downed trees and traffic light failures left intersections dark and impassable, prompting police to advise residents to avoid travel until crews could restore signals and clear roads.

Heavy rain and gusty winds accompanied the haboob, with a 70 mph gust recorded at Sky Harbor shortly before the dust wall arrived, causing minor damage to a terminal roof and flash flooding on southbound Interstate 17, where the National Weather Service briefly closed lanes under a Flash Flood Warning. Shelbr, the airport’s deputy director for public relations, reported that teams were “identifying leaks and working to clear water where it has accumulated in passenger areas” after the storm subsided.

Bernae Boykin Hitesman, caught driving her children home from school in Arizona City, described the scene: “I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face if I put it outside. I was anxious-the kids were really, really frightened”.

Phoenix’s monsoon season has been notably patchy this year, with unusually dry conditions in the metro area despite heavier rain in parts of southeast and north-central Arizona, meteorologist Mark O’Malley explained. The National Weather Service forecasts a 40 percent chance of thunderstorms Tuesday before drier weather returns later in the week.

This haboob follows similar dust events over the weekend at Nevada’s Burning Man festival, where towering dust walls disrupted travel and prompted safety warnings in Black Rock City. As the Southwest monsoon continues, residents remain on alert for sudden storms capable of whipping desert dust skyward with little warning.

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