# The Haboobs are here! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 23, 2022, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-haboobs-are-here/966712 "2022-06-23T23:44:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2022, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-haboobs-are-here/966712/1 "2022-06-23T23:44:10Z")
We are getting our first rain in months. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2022, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-haboobs-are-here/966712/2 "2022-06-24T00:03:27Z")
Wouldn’t that be a (desert) monsoon? If so, I pity anyone trying to keep cool with a swamp cooler. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2022, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-haboobs-are-here/966712/3 "2022-06-24T00:27:49Z")
“Monsoon” is passe´. The local weather guys switched to Habboob a few years ago. And, yes - that’ pretty much it for Swamp Cooling this season. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2022, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-haboobs-are-here/966712/4 "2022-06-24T00:32:51Z")
For me, rainy season in the desert will always be ‘monsoon season’. (In the Antelope Valley, monsoon season was in August. It was horrible. Yes, we had a swamp cooler.) ---
**Author:** ![JaneDoe42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janedoe42/32/14104_2.png) [@JaneDoe42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JaneDoe42)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2022, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-haboobs-are-here/966712/5 "2022-06-24T00:46:37Z")
Nit pic - haboobs come with big wind. Monsoons are big water. We got our first nice monsoon storm a couple of days ago. It looks like we might get some night rain, but you know how the clouds like to trick us into getting our hopes up before disapearing into wisps in the breeze. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2022, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-haboobs-are-here/966712/6 "2022-06-24T00:57:23Z")
sometimes febuary … you got to deal with the cold as hell wind as well as just warm enough not to be snow running down your clothes as you ran around av high dodging the flooded spots …to get to class ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2022, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-haboobs-are-here/966712/7 "2022-06-24T01:05:14Z")
I don’t remember those being called ‘monsoons’. When I was there, ‘monsoons’ were the hot, humid thunderstorms in Summer. Af course, winds were omnipresent year-round. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2022, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-haboobs-are-here/966712/8 "2022-06-24T01:38:06Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > The local weather guys switched to Habboob a few years ago. Really? I always thought haboobs were a different thing - caused similarly by unstable air and convection, but sand & dust storms rather than rain. > [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Wouldn’t that be a (desert) monsoon? If so, I pity anyone trying to keep cool with a swamp cooler. I’m in Santa Fe - we just started getting some heavy rain (thank god), and July & August tend to have most convectional rainfall. But the average _relative_ humidity doesn’t go up very much, maybe from 30% to 40%. The rainy period coincides with the highest temperatures, so the absolute water vapor capacity is much greater. Fortunately, swamp coolers work well all summer here. ---
**Author:** ![dummygladhands71](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c0e974/32.png) [@dummygladhands71](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dummygladhands71)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2022, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-haboobs-are-here/966712/9 "2022-06-24T01:56:39Z")
We dumped the swamp about the 2nd week in June. Pretty good rain here - at one point it was raining hard in the back yard, barely raining in the front. Only in the AZ. My newly installed rain chains didn’t work properly, I need to secure them at the bottom. And our new rain barrel didn’t get much because the downspout needs work. Shoot. But the water that came off the roof was almost black. No measurable rain since Dec. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2022, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-haboobs-are-here/966712/10 "2022-06-24T01:57:12Z")
Haboobs are sand and dust, creating a huge wall thousands of feet high. Inside the sandstorm, visibility is near zero. Haboob is an Arabic word, and the Middle East is famous for these massive sandstorms. Rainy season in July in AZ is monsoon season. ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![JaneDoe42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janedoe42/32/14104_2.png) [@JaneDoe42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JaneDoe42)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2022, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-haboobs-are-here/966712/11 "2022-06-24T02:03:36Z")
I was just watching the news and being VERY happy I wasn’t on the freeway. It looked nasty. We didn’t get enough to talk about here in the Cordes Junction area but I can see storms dumping water up north. Hurray for rain! ---
**Author:** ![dummygladhands71](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c0e974/32.png) [@dummygladhands71](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dummygladhands71)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2022, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-haboobs-are-here/966712/12 "2022-06-24T04:50:25Z")
> [@VOW](#): > > Haboobs are sand and dust, creating a huge wall thousands of feet high. Inside the sandstorm, visibility is near zero. > > Haboob is an Arabic word, and the Middle East is famous for these massive sandstorms. > > Rainy season in July in AZ is monsoon season. > > ~VOW That discussion here in the AZ has become the unsaid who did you vote for question ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2022, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-haboobs-are-here/966712/13 "2022-06-24T18:48:46Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > The local weather guys switched to Habboob a few years ago. He is wrong, as VOW and others have pointed out. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2022, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-haboobs-are-here/966712/14 "2022-06-24T19:44:03Z")
@dummygladhands71 I wouldn’t know. I don’t play that game. ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2022, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-haboobs-are-here/966712/15 "2022-06-25T00:31:09Z")
It USED to be science-based. The start of the season was signaled by three consecutive days of average dew point temperatures of 55 degrees or higher Now it’s “June 15th”. Another example of the dumbing-down of America. Science doesn’t care what your calendar says! I guess if you have a fixed start day,you can have sales, like Washington’s birthday or whatever. PS: We in Mesa didn’t get any rain. ---
**Author:** ![JaneDoe42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janedoe42/32/14104_2.png) [@JaneDoe42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JaneDoe42)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2022, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-haboobs-are-here/966712/16 "2022-06-25T01:09:04Z")
I’m sorry you didn’t get any rain in Mesa. Those clouds you have been seeing up north did drop a nice bit of rain here and now the Dewey though Prescott areas are under flood watch. Rain is good, floods…not so much. ---
**Author:** ![JaneDoe42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janedoe42/32/14104_2.png) [@JaneDoe42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JaneDoe42)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2022, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-haboobs-are-here/966712/17 "2022-06-25T21:47:33Z")
I’m watching the thunderheads roll in from the north, chances are good that we are going to be getting another storm. Here’s hoping the storms keep rolling south and rains all over all of you folks too. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2022, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-haboobs-are-here/966712/18 "2022-06-25T22:04:44Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > > [@beowulff](#): > > > > The local weather guys switched to Habboob a few years ago. > > Really? I always thought haboobs were a different thing - caused similarly by unstable air and convection, but sand & dust storms rather than rain. Thunderstorm gust fronts can cause haboobs so the local weather guys aren’t that far off. [https://www.weather.gov/safety/wind-dust-storm](https://www.weather.gov/safety/wind-dust-storm) ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2022, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-haboobs-are-here/966712/19 "2022-06-26T00:55:31Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > Thunderstorm gust fronts can cause haboobs so the local weather guys aren’t that far off. Well they are wrong if they are using haboob as _synonymous_ with monsoon thunderstorm, as OP seemed to think. As I had already said, haboobs are caused by the same convectional process as thunderstorms. But most thunderstorms do not have the sand and dust phenomenon of haboobs. ---
**Author:** ![dummygladhands71](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c0e974/32.png) [@dummygladhands71](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dummygladhands71)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2022, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-haboobs-are-here/966712/20 "2022-06-27T04:48:59Z")
Pretty sure that at some point I dated tonite’s storm. All show, no go, here in Cen Po.