Kevin reminded me this was not the first time I’d seen this.
He says that when we were kids driving out west, we saw a dust storm that actually formed a funnel cloud.
How did I forget that? No clue.
But, there I was on Tuesday night, hanging out with Anil at his place in central Phoenix. He was outside finishing up some burgers and veggies on the grill, and I was in the bathroom taking my contacts out. The dry air gets my eyes every time …
I had just put my glasses on when Anil yelled, “Hey Melissa, you have got to come see this!”
I darted out to the living room, and he motioned me to come outside the front door with him – under the covered area of the condo complex. “Look how hazy it is,” he said at the exact same moment that I took my glasses off – I couldn’t see anything, and I figured it’s because my glasses were dirty. But nope, it was the air.
“A dust storm is coming,” Anil explained, and then sure enough, wind was picking up. Dust was everywhere. It reminded me of a really intense rain storm, except for there was no water, only dirt. We went back inside before it got any worse, but I could still taste the dirt inside my mouth and feel it underneath my bare feet as I walked across the newly swiffered floors (which I’d done myself just a few hours ago.)
I was talking to Kevin on the phone a few minutes later, then I heard a crash which I assumed was thunder but Anil explained it was actually stuff falling in the wind. It was actually a little bit scary, even inside this condo that is surronded by brick and concrete. Was certainly very insteresting!
Anil’s dad called a few minutes later to make sure we weren’t out in it. My dad texted me this morning to ask about it.
And from my ground-level perspective, I didn’t even know how bad it really was. Until I turned on the news. Flight delays. Power outages. 10,000-foot-high dust waves. Worst dust storm people had ever seen.
And as I clean up a fine layer of dust across the entire condo the day after, I’m not annoyed by the cleanup but actually pretty amazed I got to see it all …
Check out these photos I got from the NY Daily News story about it:
Now I understand why everyone was telling me to stay safe!