The Makings of a Dust Storm

This time of year, we get some pretty impressive dust storms around here.  We've had two in particular this year that are some of the most impressive dust storms we've seen during our years here.  These pictures are used courtesy of Ray (one of our MKs) who did a great job capturing the storm.  He happened to be on top of a tall plateau several miles outside of town.  From there, he had a incredible vantage point from which to view this vast storm approaching and then engulfing the city.  I'll share just a few of Ray's pictures, so you can be awed by the making of a dust storm.  In this picture, you can see the wall of dust starting to approach the city.  The dust storms are often on the front edge of a system of thunderstorms that are building.  Sometimes they are followed by rain, but not always.  They can be thousands of feet tall and miles long.

Here you can see the wall of dust towards the north.  This is just part of the line.

 And here's the line towards the south.  You can see the blue sky in front of and above the system.

Now it's getting closer to the city.

It gets darker as it approaches.  You can see it closing in on some of the bigger buildings in town.

 

 The line to the north has now covered the main part of the city. 

 

As the wall rolls over you, the sky turns dark red/orange.  You definitely don't want your laundry hanging on the line still when the dust storm hits.  This storm turned everything black as night when we were inside of it.  We couldn't even see one foot in front of us.

Here's the line to the south again as it is approaching two tall water towers on that side of town.  The water towers are dwarfed by the approaching wall of dust.

Here the water towers are being overrun by the wall.  One minute you are sitting in broad daylight with blue skies, and the next minute it is dark as night with howling winds and dust everywhere.  The dust covers everything and makes it way into all parts of your house even with the windows and doors closed. 

Here's our hangar after one of these dust storms.  Everything is covered with a thick layer of dust.  You can see the foot prints on the floor in the dust.  In the picture is our incredible hangar guard/helper who, without complaint, methodically went around cleaning the whole hangar after this storm, which was the 2nd one in about 3 days.