Let there be.....dusty weather!

After having Mike with me for about a week and a half, I drove him to the airport in Vegas and dropped him off. On the way up we stopped at Laughlin's library, so on the way back, I "watched" (i.e. listened to) the pilot episode of JAG. I just can't listen to music on long trips...heck, I can't listen to it in town either. I left Vegas about 4:00 and made good time.

It was a little cloudy on the way back and thought I had better hurry in case it rains (I had one or two items out in the yard from cleaning that wouldn't like being rained upon, such as the leaf-blower.

I was planning on going to the store on the way home. Upon reaching the top of the hill near Christmas Tree Pass and beginning the decent, I quickly noticed that I couldn't see the mountains on the other side. It wasn't clouds or rain, although it was dark, but dust. As I continued down the hill, the neighborhoods on the other side of the hill disappeared until I reached the bottom of the hill. The dust storm was moving in and I had beaten it to the stoplight by literally a minute or two. As I drove up the highway (driving parallel to the storm) I felt like one of the scenes in Hidalgo or the Mummy. I could see the storm in my rearview mirror and I could see it creeping up along side of me as well.

As I drove, more and more dirt began blowing across the road in front of me. It felt more like driving in fog, as I had a hard time at points seeing the cars in front of me (I could see only the taillights when it was thick.) Along with the sand, larger and larger objects were being blown across the road. At first it was plastic bags and paper, but then I saw some plywood (most likely from a roof), siding, and a plastic chair or two. I continued on and watched the storm building, and even more dust blowing. At one point within a mile of home, the dust was so thick I couldn't see my own hood, much less and traffic that might be in front of me. It was very similar to driving in a whiteout, but I'm not sure what to call it. Upon arriving home, I rescued the items in the yard (with the housing, the winds were not as bad in the neighborhood as they were on the highway) and also rescued my trashcans that I had left at the end of the driveway (these have blown away before and I've found them blocks away).

All items saved, I went in to check the TV for warnings. I found a warning for severe thunderstorms and possibly large hail for this area on the weather channel website. The TV had no break in warnings for our area, as I suppose the weather in phoenix took precedence (we weren't even a blurb at the bottom of the screen until an hour after the storms ended...thanks guys!)

We got a small bit of rain here, and apparently we will have activity for the next few days...should be fun!