Like a scene from Armageddon, a huge wall of dust rolled over the US city of Phoenix yesterday, grounding flights and reducing visibility to near zero.
The wall of dust – which was about 50 miles (80 km) wide – came from the desert in the South and descended on the Arizona capital.
Dangerously low visibility was reported throughout the city and the dust was expected to spread through much of the Phoenix metropolitan area last night, blanketing the city entirely. More than a dozen local communities were also on alert for severe thunderstorms.
A local radio station reported that visibility was reduced to 20 ft in some areas, and traffic was reduced to a crawl as road signs had become virtually invisible.
Dust was also getting into residents’ homes and cars through air vents, causing difficulties for people with breathing conditions.
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At least 8,000 people were left without power and winds brought down live wires that sparked a fire at a busy intersection in Tempe, but firefighters extinguished the blaze.
The Federal Aviation Administration said that because of low visibility in the area, no Phoenix-bound flights were allowed to leave Las Vegas or Los Angeles airports until late last night.
The National Weather Service said that strong winds with gusts of more than 60 mph (100 km/h) were moving northwest through Phoenix and the cities of Avondale, Tempe and Scottsdale.
The storm was part of the Arizona monsoon season, which typically starts in mid-June and lasts until the end of September.