Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Haboob, Simoom, Santa Ana

This haboob in Phoenix is so eerie that I can't get it out of my mind.

The description of the one and only ever simoom recorded to have occurred in North America sounds terrifying.

When I was a kid, the Santa Ana winds were this strange and frightening visitor that came every October. Trees were ripped from the ground (to fall straight through our house - ask me about it sometime), animals seemed to always have their hair up, the skies were orange with dust and smoke, and every evening we'd sit, glued to the tv to make sure the fires hadn't found our neighborhood. And the heat! You'd run the air conditioning all night and, just behind the steady drone of its fans, you'd hear this shrieking, moaning, angry wind clutching at the window frames. Sometimes, the house would make this sudden CRACK sound as it settled from the heat or the wind and you'd feel sure another tree was coming down on your bedroom.

Winds. They are monsters.

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