HABOOBS

I have a Facebook page for this blog. I share stuff about Texas on it. A lot of that has to do with the weather we experience in Texas.

Things I don't cover or very rarely cover: politics and negative news about Texas and Texans.

Here's the deal: If you come to the Zepp's Texas page with racism or malignant ethnocentrism, I will boot you off permanently.

I recently got a little grief about using the word "haboob" to describe a sand storm. I was told by using that word instead of "sand storm" that, "We're being 'trained' to accept Muslims."

That's some pretty xenophobic, tin-foil-hat-crazy right there. If that's the case, then let's look at the English language as a whole. If we use the word "enchilada" are we being "trained" to accept Mexicans? If we use the word "rendezvous" are we being "trained" to accept the French? Or more to the point, you do realize that English comes from ENGLAND and NOT America, right? I guess we've been "trained" to accept the English if that's the case.

Listen, genius: Haboob is a recognized meteorology term. It's six letters as opposed to nine letters with a space in between words, and therefore more convenient to use in print and in broadcast.

Also, the word is hilarious. It's fun to say. Especially for those of us with a junior high sense of humor.

For the willfully ignorant or those desiring to leave the cesspool of proud ignorance, a haboob (Arabic: هَبوب‎, romanized: habūb, lit. 'blasting/drifting') is a type of intense dust storm carried on an atmospheric gravity current, also known as a weather front. Haboobs occur regularly in dry land area regions throughout the world.

As with haboobs in the Middle East, haboob occurrences in North America are often created by the collapse of a thunderstorm. This is a local or mesoscale event, and at times of extreme drought they can originate in agricultural regions. Some of the most famous dust storms of the Dust Bowl and similar conditions later were in fact synoptic scale events typically generated by a strong cold frontal passage, with 14 April 1935, 9–11 May 1934, 19 February 1954, and 11 November 1911 being particularly vivid examples.

The arid and semiarid regions of North America—in fact, any dry region—may experience haboobs. In North America, the most common terms for these events are either dust storm or sandstorm. In the U.S., they frequently occur in the deserts of Arizona, including around the cities of Yuma and Phoenix; in New Mexico, including Albuquerque; in eastern California, and in Texas. They also sometimes occur in the Columbia Basin, of Eastern Washington, almost always leading to an impact with the city of Spokane. If the storms are strong enough, they can reach as far east as Post Falls and Moscow, in North Idaho.

When I worked for the U.S. Army at Fort Hood in III Corps Public Affairs, we used the word haboob to describe massive sand storms. I've since heard it and seen it used elsewhere in weather reports. It has nothing to do with your racism, your religious bigotry, or your overblown ethnocentrism. Put down the Breitbart and the Sean Hannity and back away quickly. Your hate is not helpful and I sure don't want any of it on anything with which I'm associated.