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| Photo Credit: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/resources/teachable-moment/nasas-eyes-on-extreme-weather/ |
JENN McKINLAY: When it comes to the weather or weather events, Arizonans are somewhat smug. It gets a little hot here (ha!) and we do have occasional catastrophic wildfires but by and large, we don't have seasons of horror like PA and NY's blizzards or coastal FL's hurricanes, or CA's mudslides, wildfires, or earthquakes. I love you, Cali, but you can be rather dramatic.
But here's the problem with that smugness. What we do have in AZ is the haboob. What's a haboob? So glad you asked. Here's the video from my front yard of last week's drama.
A haboob is essentially a dust storm on steroids and is characterized by a massive, thick wall of dust that forms from the strong winds spreading out from a collapsing thunderstorm. Seriously, when it hits it feels apocalyptic. Mercifully, they don't generally last that long and the rain the follows washes the dirt away. Also, it keeps us Arizonans humble.
Now it's your turn, Reds and Readers, what major weather events happen where you live? Is there any event that you will avoid at all costs?
For me, it's tornados. No, thank you!
Our weather can be particularly scary at times . . . winter snow, summer hurricanes . . . but [so far] we've not had to deal with dust storms or tornadoes [thank goodness] . . . .
ReplyDeleteI live in “dramatic” California and wildfires have become a problem not just here, but everywhere the winds can blow and the precipitation can drop for extended periods. In other words, most of the planet thanks to climate change. I don’t think earthquakes are a weather phenomenon, but as a native Californian, we just live with the unpredictability of them. I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it. — Pat S
ReplyDeleteWe are used to thunderstorms, blizzards and ice storms in Ottawa. Thanks to climate change, we now get tornadoes. So far, 4 tornadoes have touched down in the city in the past 3 years.
ReplyDeleteBut the most widespread dramatic weather event was the DERECHO in 2022. This long-lasting straight line wind travelled over 1000 km/620 miles with 180 km/120 mph winds across most of southern Ontario & Quebec. Thousands of power poles and tens of thousands of trees were felled.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_2022_Canadian_derecho
This type of event happens once every 20 years. So of course, we got no weather warning, except for normal thunderstorms.