Massive dust storm sweeps through Phoenix

Daylight turned to darkness during the afternoon of August 25th as strong to severe thunderstorms south of the Valley sent a massive wall of dust into the region just after 5 pm.

Visibility at Phoenix Sky Harbor was reported to be zero from 5:35 to 5:51 pm, with wind gusts of 70mph. The one piece of good news is that rain followed quickly behind the wall of dust, allowing the visibility and air quality to quickly improve in most places.

Dust storms like these are more typical in the early part of the monsoon; however, conditions have been relatively dry across the region this season, allowing for this size of dust storm later in the season.