What Is a Haboob? In Plain Words

What a haboob is, in the NWS’s own substance

The NWS safety page, headed “Dust Storms and Haboobs,” says dust storms and haboobs can occur anywhere in the United States but are most common in the Southwest.

That same page says haboobs occur as a result of thunderstorm outflow winds.

It also says a dust storm usually arrives suddenly in the form of an advancing wall of dust and debris which may be miles long and several thousand feet high.

The NWS Albuquerque monsoon page says the most extreme cases of dust storms in New Mexico occur in the extreme southern portions of the state, and are referred to as “haboobs.” In that page’s words, a haboob is an extreme dust storm, and the onset of the dust is extreme — it is virtually a wall of dust.

The NWS Owlie explainer page says it in a shorter way: haboobs are powerful dust storms.

Where the word comes from

The NWS Lubbock page about the June 22, 2006 event says: “Haboob comes from the Arabic word for wind and is used to describe sand and dust storms across the world.”

The NWS Lubbock page about the October 17, 2011 event words the same point a second way, calling a haboob “an Arabic term for intense dust storm.”

This page prints only those two NWS Lubbock wordings for where the word comes from. It does not add a spelling, a root word, or a place of origin that those pages do not state.

How a haboob forms, as the anchors describe it

The NWS Owlie explainer page describes the start this way: haboobs form when a thunderstorm collapses and either all the air it collected is blown out in powerful gusts, or the air within it cools and falls rapidly to the surface in a microburst.

That page then says the strong winds it releases are pushed in front of the storm and pick up dust and debris to create a wall thousands of feet high and miles across.

The NWS Albuquerque page describes the sinking air behind that picture. It says a downburst is a non-rotating wind that is created by a column of sinking air in a thunderstorm that, after hitting ground level, spreads out in all directions. It also says the leading edge of the winds, as the winds spread away from the parent thunderstorms, is also known as an “outflow boundary” or “gust front.”

The NWS safety page puts the chain in its shortest form: haboobs occur as a result of thunderstorm outflow winds, and strong thunderstorm winds can start a dust storm.

Where haboobs are most often seen

The NWS safety page says dust storms and haboobs can occur anywhere in the United States but are most common in the Southwest.

The NWS Owlie explainer page says haboobs can happen anywhere but are most often seen around northern Africa and the southwestern US. That page asks what those regions have in common, and answers: a lot of hot, dry air and loose particles.

Those are two different scopes — one page is talking about the United States, the other is talking about the world — so this page prints them separately, each with its page named.

Size, as each anchor states it

Figures are printed here only with the page that states them. They are not blended into one claim.

• NWS safety page: a dust storm usually arrives suddenly in the form of an advancing wall of dust and debris which may be miles long and several thousand feet high.
• NWS Owlie explainer page: the strong winds pick up dust and debris to create a wall thousands of feet high and miles across.

Read plainly, the two pages describe the same kind of wall in near-identical words. Neither page, in the text read for this page, gives a single exact height number or a single exact length number for every haboob, so this page prints no such number.

How long one lasts — the anchors do not give one single number

The anchors give different lengths of time, for different places and for different kinds of dust storm. This page prints them separately, with the page and the place named, and does not merge them.

• NWS safety page, about dust storms: dust storms usually last only a few minutes.
• NWS Owlie explainer page, about haboobs: haboobs typically only last minutes.
• NWS Albuquerque page, about the most extreme cases in extreme southern New Mexico: a haboob is an extreme dust storm that can persist for 1 to 3 hours.
• NWS Albuquerque page, in its dust storm safety section, about extreme southern New Mexico: across extreme southern New Mexico, haboobs can persist for 1 to 2 hours resulting in extremely hazardous driving conditions.
• NWS Albuquerque page, about the northern portion of New Mexico: dust storms in the northern portion of New Mexico usually last a few minutes, and up to an hour at most.

So a short dust storm and a long southern New Mexico haboob are not described with the same number in these pages, and this page does not pick one number as the number for all haboobs.

Why the dust is a danger on the road, in the NWS’s words

The NWS safety page says they strike with little warning, making driving conditions hazardous.

That page also says blinding, choking dust can quickly reduce visibility, causing accidents that may involve chain collisions, creating massive pileups.

The NWS Albuquerque page says, in its dust storm safety section, that straight line winds in any thunderstorm can lift huge clouds of dust and reduce visibilities to near zero in seconds, which can quickly result in deadly, multi-vehicle accidents on roadways.

Driving and visibility: the safety page’s own wording

The steps below are the NWS safety page’s own dust storm safety tips, in that page’s substance. This page does not add steps of its own.

• If dense dust is observed blowing across or approaching a roadway, pull your vehicle off the pavement as far as possible, stop, turn off lights, set the emergency brake, take your foot off of the brake pedal to be sure the tail lights are not illuminated.
• Don’t enter the dust storm area if you can avoid it.
• If you can’t pull off the roadway, proceed at a speed suitable for visibility, turn on lights and sound horn occasionally. Use the painted center line to help guide you. Look for a safe place to pull off the roadway.
• Never stop on the traveled portion of the roadway.

The safety page adds a section headed “Lights Out!” It says that in the past, motorists driving in dust storms have pulled off the roadway, leaving lights on, and that vehicles approaching from the rear and using the advance car’s lights as a guide have inadvertently left the roadway and in some instances collided with the parked vehicle. In that page’s words: make sure all of your lights are off when you park off the roadway.

The NWS Albuquerque page words the pull-off point in its own way: if you encounter a dust storm, pull off the road immediately, turn off your headlights and taillights, put your vehicle in “PARK,” and take your foot off the brake. That page explains why: other motorists may tend to follow taillights in an attempt to get through the dust storm, and may strike your vehicle from behind.

The difference, in one look

• Haboob: a powerful, extreme dust storm, occurring as a result of thunderstorm outflow winds in the NWS safety page’s wording, arriving as a wall of dust.
• The wall: miles long and several thousand feet high, in the safety page’s words; thousands of feet high and miles across, in the Owlie page’s words.
• The warning: your NWS Forecast Office will issue a Dust Storm Warning if one is happening in your area, in the safety page’s words.