Massive Haboob Slams Phoenix, And Other Arizona Communities. Quite The Spectacle

Image of yesterday's massive haboob taking over
the Phoenix metro area. 

 Gosh, this blog thingy is turning into all Phoenix, all the time. 

I went on and on about the extreme summer heat there the other day, but yesterday, things got really wild out there in Arizona. 

A haboob, or giant dust storm hit the area as monsoon thunderstorms raged over large parts of Arizona and adjacent southeast California. 

Outflow from the storms stirred up the massive, apocalyptic looking wall of dust that dropped visibility to zero when it hit.

The haboob hit during the evening commute and some motorists said they couldn't see past their car hoods. The National Weather Service warned everyone to "pull aside to stay alive."

Apparently, everyone did. So far, I haven't seen any reports of deaths or serious injuries. 

Winds were intense in this swirling dust storm. A gust to 94 mph was reported at Sun Tan Valley, in the southeastern outskirts of the Phoenix metro area. The wind at Sky Harbor International Airport gusted to 70 mph amid the clouds of dust. Visibility there was at zero from 5:35 to 5:51 p.m. 

The temperature at the airport fell from 100 to 79 degrees in just 17 minutes.

To the shock of nobody, the haboob delayed plenty of flights at the airport.  A ground stop there lasted a good hour. A connector bridge at the airport was shredded by the storm, and part of a roof at a terminal was damaged. 

Power lines and even utility poles snapped. Trees fell on houses, cars and carports. Photos and video from the Phoenix showed fallen trees, traffic signals and wires. The bottoms of countless swimming pools were covered in dirt.  

The haboob yesterday about to swallow the Phoeni
Sky Harbor airport. 

In Arizona Monday,  the haboob was followed in many areas by torrential rains from the parent thunderstorm. 

As the rain turned the dust to mud then washed it away, flash flood alerts blared in the Phoenix area, along with many other areas in southern Arizona and far southern California away from the coast. 

The haboob traveled quite a distance, too. It developed a little north to Tucson, then slammed through Casa Grande around 4:25 p.m. local time before slamming into Phoenix an hour later. Which means it traveled a good 60 miles at least. 

Haboobs are pretty common in arid areas, including in the U.S. Desert Southwest.  A similar serious haboob swept through the Burning Man festival in northwest Nevada last weekend, ripping up encampments and other temporary structures. 

Some observers say the Phoenix haboob on Monday was the most intense since July, 2011. 

Every weather emergency has its precautions, and haboobs have theirs.  Motorists who see a wall of dust coming should pull into a parking lot. Or, if none is available, pull as far off the side of the road as possible. 

People are told to shut off their car lights.  The visibility in haboobs is so bad that people have been known to smash into parked cars with lights on, thinking they were on the highway. Kind of like a blizzard here in Vermont. Except obviously with sand, not snow. 

More haboobs, big thunderstorms and flash floods are possible in the Desert Southwest for the rest of today and likely tomorrow. 

On a vaguely humorous note, spell check kept trying to make me say Phoenix was hit with either a "kabob" or a "baboon" either of which would have been more fun and probably less dangerous. 

Videos:

Storm chaser Aaron Rigsby got some amazing shots of the Arizona haboob. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that:

 
Another video from the Associated Press, shows what it was like to be in a car during the haboob, then a timelapse of the haboob, followed by torrential rain, sweeping into downtown Phoenix. Again, click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that:

American Stupidity: Why Did Family Go Hiking In Blasting Phoenix Heat Wave

Hiking trails around Phoenix, Arizona do look lovely,
but what possessed parents in a family group to
take kids on a hike there on a 110+ degree day?

 You don't want to be outside for any length of time this time of year in Phoenix. 

That will seem obvious, given that Phoenix is probably the hottest major American city, at least in terms of temperature.  So anybody in their right mind would demur when somebody suggest a nice long hike in that weather, right?   

So why the living hell did, on June 29 a group of five adults and six children, mostly between the ages of 5 and 11, set off on a hike? They started around 10 a.m. and buy noon, they needed help. Desperately.  

A tactical rescue team was dispatched to the Holbert Trail, where the group was. "We basically dispatched the equivalent of a first alarm mountain rescue. We had upwards of five mountain rescue teams who responded. That's a lot of resources," Phoenix Fire Department Captain Rob McDade told AZFamily.com

"There's no reason to be on trails at 10 a.m. on an extreme heat day like this. Especially with younger children," McDade added, putting on his Captain Obvious hat.

I wonder if the Darwin Awards have a division for entire families instead of just winnings for individuals. Although I'd give the award to just the adults in the group. The ages of the children were 3, 5, 9, 10, 11 and 15. 

 The family also endangered the rescuers who had to go up and get them. The heat surely affected them, too, though I'm happy to report the rescuers survived the ordeal. At least until somebody else gets stupid in the Arizona desert summer. 

 Other members of the Phoenix fire department also panned the group.

"Trying to get the family out is very commendable but hiking on a day of extreme heat ad going around well-placed sigs that say 'This trail is closed,' is one of the worst decisions to make," Capt. Todd Keller of the Phoenix Police Department told the Arizona Republic. "The overwhelming feeling is not surprise, but disappointment."

Aside from common sense,  the family was not supposed to be there at all.  

The city of Phoenix closed most municipal trails, including the Colbert Trail that day because of the extreme heat. The city typically closes their trails from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on particularly hot days. 

The high temperature the day the family was rescued reached 114 degrees with an early morning low of a still sweltering 87 degrees. The normal June 29 high in Phoenix is 107, with a record high of 119.

So by any measure June 29 was a ridiculously hot day in Phoenix. 

Phoenix has a city ordinance that allows them to cite people who go into closed parks. Those convicted face a fine of $50 or more and eight hours of community service. 

 As azfamily.com reports:  

"You can face charges for leaving a child in a hot car, you could face charges for taking them hiking in the heat. Child crime experts say parents could be charged for neglect or abuse for knowingly bringing their children on hiking trails in extreme heat."

The Arizona Republic says people have died on Phoenix area trails when take foolhardy summer hikes. 

Ultimately, the hikers were not cited.  The city released this statement regarding the issue:

"While the city retains the authority to cite individuals for entering a closed park or trail, health and safety is the priority during an emergency rescue. The objective is to get individuals to safety off the mountain and connected to medical care as quickly as possible. No one should ever be deterred from calling for help out of concern or receiving a citation"

OK, fine, but inquiring minds want to know what possessed this group to go hiking in the first place. Alas, I could find no evidence of anybody from the group explaining what happened.  

I also, wonder - and hope - whether child protective services is looking into the matter. 

Astoundingly Long, Intense Phoenix Heat Wave Ends, Meteorologists, Climatologists Agog

Phoenix, Arizona just came out of what was very likely
the most extreme, longest lasting heat wave relative to
average temperatures on record anywhere in the U.S.

The high temperature in Phoenix, Arizona reached 99 degrees on Tuesday, not a record high.

That ended an incredible streak of 21 consecutive days with record high temperatures in that city.  Such a long streak of daily record highs has never been seen before in any weather station with at least a few decades of data. Not even close.  

Meteorologists and climatologists were stunned by the length of this intense hot spell. The just ended hot spell is likely by far the most extreme heat wave relative to average temperatures on record anywhere in the U.S.

A streak like that had been considered impossible. As I noted in an October 5 post about the intense autumn heat wave in the Southwest, the longest consecutive day streak of record highs anywhere in the U.S. had been 14 days in Burlington, Iowa on July 4-17, 1936. Those were the famous old Dust Bowl days.  

The 117 degrees in Phoenix on September 28 was the hottest on record for that month. Setting a September record at the end of the month is even more incredible since you would be expecting the desert heat to be simmering down after Labor Day.

That's especially true since the 117 degree reading broke the old record for the month by nine degrees.  It's very rare for a monthly record to break an old record by more than two degrees. 

Phoenix also set a new record high for October on two days - the 1st and 6th with readings on both days of 113 degrees.  That also shattered the old monthly record by a huge margin of six degrees.

Until this year, it had never reached 110 degrees in Phoenix after September 19.  This year, it was at least 110 degrees on nine days after September 19, the most recent on October 7. 

Relief has come to Phoenix in the form of a pretty aggressive autumn chilly snap. The forecast high on Friday there is only 78 degrees, and showers were actually likely. Saturday looks even cooler, with highs in Phoenix only expected to reach the low to mid 70s.  

Saturday's expected high could threaten a record for the lowest maximum temperature for the date. So that's quite a turnaround. 

Temperatures are expected to rebound into the 90s in Phoenix next week, but at least it won't be in the 100s. again.  Normal highs in Phoenix this time of year are in the upper 80s. 

I'm sure the increase in development, pavement and concrete contributes to the increasing heat in Phoenix. But so does climate change. This heat wave was so far off the charts that observers are saying this would have been impossible without climate change. 

These heat waves are increasingly afflicting Phoenix as they are many other cities globally.  For instance, July, 2023 was the hottest month on record in Phoenix, July, 2024 was merely the second hottest. All of Phoenix's top five hottest Junes, Julys, Augusts and Septembers have occurred since 2003.

Records in Phoenix go back to 1895.  

No Autumn Out West: Unprecedented October Heat Baking Region

The extreme autumn heat in Phoenix, Arizona has 
shocked even seasoned meteorologists and 
climatologists. Almost the entire West is in
the throes of an unprecedented October heat wave.

 An incredible late season heat wave is baking large swaths of the United States west, continuing a never-ending summer that shows no signs of ending. 

More than 200 weather stations set records for the hottest temperature on record for October.  

More than 2,000 weather stations in the West set daily high temperatures records in just the first three days of October. 

Climate change has made extreme record heat more likely, and now this heat is spilling into seasons other than summer. 

This heat wave is even more off the charts than almost all other strange hot spells various parts of the world have suffered in this warming world. 

PHOENIX MISERY

While the entire West is embroiled in extreme October heat, Phoenix, Arizona, which had its hottest, most miserable summer on record, is now enduring previously unimaginable October heat:

 The records being broken in Phoenix are absolutely insane as their equally insane summer continues unabated well into autumn. 

Here's the Washington Post to fill us in on what's been going on in Phoenix.

"Phoenix also set an October record Tuesday, with a high of 113 degrees. That record was established only four days after reaching a September record of 117 on Saturday. The high of 113 demolished its previous calendar day and months records by six degrees."

Additionally, an unprecedented 113 consecutive days in which temperatures reached 100 or more in Phoenix ended on September 17.  Residents there probably thought that autumn had arrived, as by their standards, each day from September 17 to 22 failed to reach 100 degrees. 

So much for that idea. Each day since September 23 has been at least 105 in Phoenix, and six of those reached at least 110 degrees.  

"Temperatures reaching 110 this late in the year is pretty  unfathomable at this point, given the lowering sun angle, length of day, and considering the previous latest 110+ on record was September 19, two weeks ago," the National Weather Service in Phoenix wrote. 

On Thursday, Phoenix endured an unprecedented tenth day in a row with record high temperatures. The record for consecutive days of record temperatures for any U.S. city was 14 in Burlington, Iowa on July 4-17, 1936  during the Dust Bowl heat waves of the 1930s, reports climatologist Brian Brettschneider. 

 Phoenix could well see at least four more days of record highs

 Each day in Phoenix through next Monday is forecast to be at least 106 degrees, and each day through at least next Thursday should be at least 100 degrees. 

The normal high in Phoenix this time of year is around 94 degrees

UNPRECEDENTED HEAT EXPANDS

It's not just Phoenix due for many more days of weird autumn heat.

Palm Springs, California reached 117 degrees Tuesday, breaking the record for hottest October there, and tying the record for hottest October day anywhere in the United States.

It was the 15th time this year that Palm Springs reached 117, another record. And, Palm Springs set its all time record high of 124 back on July 5

Other cities setting all-time records for October are Death Valley, 114 degrees; Yuma, Arizona, 113 degrees; 112 in Blythe and Needles, California; 107 in Van Nuys, California, and 105 degrees in Tucson, Arizona and Fresno, California, 103 in Sacramento, 89 in Grand Junction, Colorado and 85 in Cheyenne, Wyoming. 

In all, 230 weather stations in the West hit all time highs for the entire month of October in just the opening three days of the month. 

. Heat warnings and advisories extend northward through California past San Francisco and Sacramento.

The dry air mass has prompted wild fire alerts in a vast area of the West, stretching from California to South Dakota.

The hot, dry, windy weather has revived some existing wildfires in California that had been temporarily tamped down by a spell of somewhat cooler, slightly more humid air last week. 

Much above normal temperatures, occasionally record warmth, should continue in the western half of the United States through mid-month 

VERMONT EFFECTS

Here in Vermont, temperatures have not reached record levels, but we have still been oddly and persistently warm.  

Friday was the eighth consecutive day in Burlington with highs in the 70s, which is quite unusual for this time of year. Much more odd is the string of warm nights, at least by autumnal standards. Friday was the 23rd day in a row in Burlington in which the low temperature stayed above 50 degrees.

The warm streak here is showing signs of ending.

 The heat dome causing the western hot weather will if anything strengthen and expand, That'll create a corresponding dip in the jet stream over the eastern United States. 

The process has started. The forecast low in Burlington Sunday morning is 43 degrees, which isn't the least bit unusual for this time of year but would still be the coolest morning since April 27.  That in itself is odd, because it has frequently been cooler than 43 degrees every month of the year, including July and August. So we've had a really weird run of balminess in Vermont. 

The chill will intensify next week when highs Tuesday through Friday should stay in the 50s across Vermont. Again, those temperatures are pretty run of the mill for October, but it'll feel weird in this hot year of 2024. 

Phoenix, Arizona Grinds On With 100+ Consecutive Days Of 100 Degree Heat

It was over 100 degrees today (Thursday Sept 5) in
Phoenix, Arizona, the 102nd such day in a row.
The old record for such consecutive days was 76.
And there's no end in sight for this intense heat. 

As we usually see in here in Vermont during September, temperatures have gotten more comfortable than they were in mid-summer, with the dense humidity and hot days mostly if not completely behind us.   

Compared to many cities, including the example I'll get into, Vermont is always lucky when it comes to heat. 

One Vermont weather station did get above 100 degrees on one day this summer. And on a few days, the heat index nudged above degrees. But that was it for triple digit heat. 

This compares to very unfortunately Phoenix, Arizona. It's always ridiculously hot there in the summer, but this is beyond what even they are used to.

On Tuesday, they had their 100th consecutive day in which the temperature reached at least 100. Until this year, Phoenix never had a year with more than 76 consecutive 100 degree days. So this is painful, even for them. 

Even worse, an intense new heat wave is hitting the western United States this week, including in the fair city of Phoenix. An excessive heat warning was issued for much of southern California and Arizona - including Phoenix, through Friday. 

Forecast highs in Phoenix were 114 today and 111 Friday. 

The heat, of course is dangerous. As the Washington Post reports:

"Last year, heat deaths increased 50 percent from 2022, reaching a record 645 people in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix. This year, 150 heat deaths have been confirmed by the government and an additional 440 deaths are under investigation." 

Not surprisingly, this long 100 degree streak contributed to making meteorological summer (June 1-August 31) the hottest on record, with an average of 98.9 degrees. The average high for that period in Phoenix was 110.4 degrees. The average low as a stifling 87.5 degrees.  

This is the second year in a row that Phoenix endured a spectacularly hot summer. Last July, Phoenix set a record for the hottest average monthly temperature for a U.S. city, as July, 2023 saw an average of 102.7 degrees. (Death Valley had hotter months, but that's not a city).  

Phoenix last year also had a record 31 days in a row in which the temperature reached at least 110 degrees. 

I guess climate change is making a brutally hot city even more unlivable. 

Normal highs in early September around Phoenix are still around 102 or 103 degrees, but you usually have a few days with highs "only" in the 90s by now. In fact, seasonal monsoons, with their clouds and thunderstorms, sometimes cause highs to stay below 100 degrees in Phoenix on a few days in late July and August 

It doesn't look like the 2024 daily 100-degree streak in Phoenix is going to end anytime soon. The National Weather Service forecasts daily highs at or above 100 degrees at least through next Wednesday. 

The Weather Channel forecast doesn't give Phoenix a sub-100 high temperature until September 15.

The late season heat wave out west is of course affecting plenty of other towns and cities. All the way north into Washington State, highs for the next couple of days are forecast to reach near record highs in the upper 80s to mid-90s. 

Officials are worries that the dry heat, along with erratic winds, could touch off destructive forest fires in the Olympic and Cascade Mountains. 

Phoenix, Arizona: Where Just The Summertime Pavement Can Kill You

Here in Vermont, it was sunny and 85 degrees when I 
walked barefoot across my asphalt driveway. It felt
pretty hot. Had I done the same thing on asphalt in 
Phoenix, Arizona this month, I would have been
hospitalized with third degree burns. 

 Emergency rooms in Arizona have certainly been busy with victims of the extreme heat out there. They also dealing with injuries that seem unimaginable to us northerners: Third degree burns from pavement, asphalt and car seats.  

You can imagine how dangerous it would be if an elderly person fell on asphalt sidewalk or parking lot this month in Phoenix and couldn't get up. 

Even those who can get up quickly are being seriously injured from burns caused by hot pavement. The Arizona Burn Center at Valleywise Health is having an unprecedented business summer.

Says CNN, in an interview with Dr. Kevin Foster, director of burn services at Valleywise Health: 

"Every single one of the 45 beds in the burn center is full, he said, and one-third of patients are people who fell and burned themselves on the ground. There are also burn patients in the ICU and about half of those patients are people burned after falls. "

People are burned by hot objects in Arizona every summer, but this year is much worse due to the persistent, extreme heat in Phoenix and elsewhere in the state.  

The heat has been unrelenting, and that takes a cumulative toll. Every day in Phoenix since June 30 has gotten to or above 110 degrees. This Saturday is forecast to be the first day this month below that level, as the high is "only" expected to reach 109 degrees. 

It's been as hot as 119 degrees in Phoenix this month. Under those conditions, pavement temperatures in the sun can go to 180 degrees or more. 

Says CNN:

"It can take only a 'fraction of a second's get a 'pretty deep burn,' Foster said. For people who have been on the pavement for 10 to 20 minutes, 'the skin is completely destroyed and the damage often goes down deep, meaning it is a third-degree burn.'" 

People with third degree burns need multiple surgeries and will spend weeks or months in a hospital.  They usually face years of reconstructive surgery and therapy. So it's a big deal.  

I'd also have to wonder if your shoes would melt if you walked down a Phoenix sidewalk during the afternoon this time of year. 

Nights have failed to get below 90 degrees in Phoenix since July 9.  Hot nights are even worse for those exposed to heat. People without access to air conditioning don't have an opportunity to lower the body temperature, because nights are too warm. 

Of course, pretty much every house and apartment in Phoenix is air conditioned.  A house without air conditioning in Phoenix is like a house in Vermont without heat. 

However, Phoenix, like most major cities, has a sizable homeless population. The estimated number of homeless people in Phoenix is roughly 6,000. There aren't nearly enough indoor shelter beds to accommodate them all. 

Also, some low income people can't afford to get their air conditioning fixed if it breaks. 

Says CBC radio: 

"As of July 15, at least 18 people have died of heat-associated causes in Phoenix in 2023, according to the Maricopa County Department of Public Health. Another 69 suspected heat deaths are under investigation."

That doesn't include the number of heat deaths in other larger communities like Tucson, Arizona, El Paso, Texas or Las Vegas, Nevada. 

Heat is the leading cause of weather related deaths, more than floods, hurricanes, tornadoes or other scary hazards.