eeks!

I thought those things only blew up across vast deserts -- I'm picturing Peter O'Toole on a camel or Viggo Mortensen in the "Hildago" movie trailer -- Wow! Do these happen often?

Hope you and yours are OK.

Liz, saw a similar photo on a BBC prog. describing the world-wide rising prices of food. Causes ranging from the droughts in wheat-growing areas of USA, Russia and Australia. Gradual drying up of the billions of gallons of water in aquifers below Kansas, stock-piling of rice by the Govt. of India, to be sold cheaply to the poor in times of need. The 'fixing' of oil prices world-wide that hits farmers who, though employing fewer workers use far more machines all needing expensive fuel . . . to say nothing of the huge hike in costs of fertilizers etc.
All very depressing . . .and what is the answer? Perhaps grow your own veggies . . . at least you will know they are fresh and not covered in chemicals. At least that is something we try and do here.

Vee..A few of the residents in my retirement village do grow veggies or herbs. I had a very good crop of cocktail tomatoes one year and nothing much the next.
Now, with a good Farmer's Market close by, it really isn't worth the bother for me and it would need a lot of the water which we are trying to conserve.

Sheri -

Luckily, these wind events aren't supposed to happen that often in one's lifetime. However, the rate of occurrence is picking up - we had one in 2009, 2011, and then 2 just this week, so who knows? It looks like a Star Wars scene at times (with the sand and low visibility. No Baba Fett.)

And Vee - yes, it would be nice to grow veg, but it's pretty challenging in this environment. We get extremes of weather (very hot, very cold), we have very low levels of precipitation (thus the haboobs), and water is in short supply. I think growing your own veg can be done, but it needs a lot of attention and resources to succeed. Plus the soil is pretty empty of the goodness that plants need. (Needless to say I don't grow any veggies, but it's mainly bc of the dog!)

The positive thing about haboobs and other types of dust storms is that the next morning, when you get up and the wind has calmed down, the light is clear, gorgeous and bright.

The answer cannot be to simply grow vegetables. Not everyone is lucky enough to own the land to do so. Some do grow herbs in pots but that's hardly the same.

I am blessed with living in a city with an active Farmers Market not far from my building, which is open almost year 'round. Can't wait til April, when it resumes.

A haboob (Arabic: ÃÂÃÂèÃÂèâ habëb "blasting/drafting") is a type of intense dust storm carried on an atmospheric gravity current. Haboobs occur regularly in arid regions throughout the world.

How old am I ?? ( rhetorical, no guesses please :0) LOL)
I have NEVER heard of or seen that word !
Live and learn.....if you pay attention.

New word for me too, yoyobon! Goes into the vocabulary along with 'derecho' (which will be long remembered for the several powerless days in the heat & humidity of a DC July.....)

My stepdaughter in Arizona told us that they had one there a couple of years ago. Seeing the picture makes it much more vivid.

Folly

duplicate message

This post was edited by rosefolly on Thu, Mar 20, 14 at 22:20

Liz, I lived in Lubbock from May 1970 to July 1972 and remember a couple of awful dust storms, although I don't think anyone called them haboobs at the time. However, they were huge walls of rolling clouds coming in from the northwest (word came through that Littlefield in Lamb County had been hit and that it was headed for Lubbock). I think people -- and animals -- already knew that something was up because they were nervous and antsy, perhaps from the electrical charge in the atmosphere. After the dust storm, I recall having to clean six inches of dirt from the spaces between the window screens and the glass panes of the north and west facing windows, with the inevitable leakage collecting on the inside sills. Then the first time the swamp cooler (evaporative-type air conditioner) was turned on the smell of dust pervaded the house once again.

1970 must have been a particularly awful weather year in Lubbock. I arrived just days after the May 11th tornado that ruined a swath of the north part of the city. My in-laws owned grain elevators on, or just off, 4th Street that were blown to smithereens. They hired college-age and high school boys to help in the clearing. We lived on Avenue X (X being the actual name) in the shadow of downtown and everyone was worried that the Great Plains Life Building that had been twisted by the tornado might collapse. I know it stood for years afterward, though. Maybe it is still standing, I don't know. Is it, Liz?

Re growing things in West Texas: I own a farm in Hockley County, near Sundown. My farmer who leases the land has a pecan orchard and during good years he sends me boxes of pecans but in the past few years he has told me it wasn't worth the effort as the pecans have been affected by drought.

My late mother-in-law always had lovely gardens (on a double lot) growing such things as watermelons, cantaloupes, honeydews, muskmelons, all sorts of squash, corn (maize), and beans on one lot. The other lot had okra, hills of cucumbers, many varieties of peppers (capsicum), and so many tomatoes that some inevitably rotted. Near the backdoor of the house she had an asparagus bed. She also had three peach trees, an apricot tree, and a mulberry tree. By the garage wall she had a whole row of pomegranate bushes (I guess they are called 'bushes' because they aren't really what I would call 'trees'). I loved the pomegranates and I ate the mulberries until one day I noticed they were loaded with tiny larvae. My mother-in-law, although quite well-to-do, had dreadful memories of the Depression and the Dust Bowl years, so she felt more secure if she could grow and preserve her own fruits and veggies. It was a lot of work for her, with special preparation of the soil, and careful irrigation but some things actually thrived in the arid conditions. I think her cantaloupes rivaled the famous Pecos cantaloupes of Reeves county.

Vee, are you referring to the Ogallala aquifer that stretches...

Frieda, yes that was the aquifer, about which I had known nothing. There was also an interesting interview with three generations of a farming family who owned vast acres of land that have been producing less and less grain over the last few years.
It sounds as though your m-in-law had green fingers to make such good use of her 'plot' and go with the conditions.
Of course Mary, I appreciate that many people can't 'veggie garden' for practical reasons . .. no land, too old etc and I don't know how many folk in the US 'have a go' at producing something edible or have fruit trees among the flower beds or even a window box to grow a few herbs or those cut and come again salad leaves. Over here people with a piece of earth out at the back will generally have something planted other than just grass, flowers or shrubs. At the moment it is spud planting time (should by tradition be Good Friday but it is very late this year) Nothing as nice as the smell of new-turned soil . .. well maybe new-mown grass. ;-)

Frieda - you asked about the twisted building in LBB. Yes, it's still standing although has different occupants now. It's quite famous for being twisted half an inch, but TV crews are *always* disappointed when they go there and can't see the difference in the twist of the building...

I think "haboob" is not a new meteorological word - it just hasn't been used that much because these events used to be so rare. (Perhaps once in a lifetime.) We've had two this week, so needless to say, people are having a hay day with "End of the World" prophecy etc. (Oh, and "them Middle Eastern words"...)

Here is a link that might be useful: Haboob - wikipedia link.