Haboobs

[davepool]

No,they're not what you think.

Haboob is a middle eastern term for BIG dust storm

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg279/dpool50/sentra6-26-11003.jpg

This one is about 5 miles from my house right now, second one of the summer, many more to come i fear.

The red circles are a couple of brave helicopter pilots.

[Viking350]

At first I thought you were talking about my hairy man boobs.

[davepool]

At first I thought you were talking about my hairy man boobs.

No, that would be HISboobs,as opposed to HERboobs :)

[LadyShooter]

I am so glad we don't get those really bad dust storms down here in Southern Arizona. That looks really nasty.

[Cypher]

Wow, I bet that wrecks havoc on the respiration system. Do you have to seal your house up or anything to keep the dust out?

I bet you guys use allergy filter systems a lot.

[davepool]

I've got my house sealed up pretty tight, not so much for the occassional dust storm, but to help keep the AC bills down. My tool shed on the other hand is a mess after one of these storms, i just plug in the leaf blower and give it a good blow.

I have louvers on my gable end vents and i can can shut them when these storms happen, to minimize the dirt getting into my attic space.

There is a fungus that lives in the desert soil called coccidioides immitis, when these Haboobs ( i like to say that word :) ) happen, the chance of breathing it into your lungs increases 100 fold. Once it get into your lungs the spores grow and cause valley fever.

Almost everyone who has lived in Arizona for more than ten years has gotten valley fever (coccidiomycosis) from this fungus. Most feel no effect at all, quite a few get flu like symptoms, and a rare few suffer long term symptoms or death, but that's extremely rare.
Good thing is, once you've had it you're immune from getting it again.