Haboob

Near-synonym: duster

Sandstorms were very prevalent during the first three months; they are called "Haboob." A fall in temperature of a few degrees in the hot months was always accompanied by these storms.

In the Central Sudan storms known as "haboobs" occur. At Khartoum in 6 years 140 haboobs occurred between May and October and 35 between November and April so that they are more frequent in the rainy season. The average duration of these storms obtained from observation of 45 haboobs at Khartoum in 3½ hours.

Haboobs tend to be most frequent along the edges of great deserts. […] Haboobs are fairly short-lived and seldom last more than three hours. […] A great amount of sand can be deposited during a haboob, and it is this type of dust storm that became the symbol of the dust bowl in the Great Plains of the United States, particularly in Oklahoma, in the 1930s.

Americans used to call these storms “dusters,” but as a sign of increasing globalization, most news outlets now call them by their Gulf Arabic name haboob. In any case, haboobs and tornadoes are intensifying in the United States. In Blackwell, Oklahoma on October 21, 2012, a haboob with a storm front two miles across closed the town and stopped all traffic on I-35 while causing about half a million dollars in damage.