Rare Haboob Blasts Lubbock, Texas

The haboob entering a neighborhood near Amarillo. Photo by
Jaci Herrera via Twitter. 

One of the most visually striking meteorological phenomena are haboobs.

Haboobs are walls of dust that roar across usually desert landscapes. They form when strong downdrafts and wind gusts from thunderstorms stir up the dust.

The walls of dust are amazing to look at, but also dangerous. They cut down on visibility on highways, often leading to fatal crashes.

And who wants to clean up after all that dust settles over everything?

Haboobs are common in places like Saudi Arabia and Arizona. Phoenix, Arizona frequently gets them.

They're not as common elsewhere. But yesterday, Lubbock, Texas had an absolutely spectacular haboob. 

The haboob crashing through the Texas panhandle near Lubbock, Texas
yesterday. Photo by Joe Scott, via Twitter. 

A line of severe thunderstorms packing winds of at least 60 mph formed west of Lubbock Wednesday.

The outflow from these storms created this spectacular haboob. No injuries were reported, even as visibility fell to zero on Interstate 27 north of Lubbock.

The National Weather Service issued dust storm warnings for a long strip of the Texas panhandle as the haboob progressed eastward.  Videos are below.

On the bright side, after the haboob moved through, the thunderstorms that caused them also moved through, dumping rain and washing some of the dust away.

Haboobs are rare in Lubbock, but they do happen. Another spectacular one occurred there in October, 2011. 

It's been a wild week in the Texas panhandle. Over the weekend, another, wetter thunderstorm caused extensive flash flooding in Amarillo, about 120 miles north of Lubbock.

In the videos below, you can see the dark parent thunderstorm behind the haboob.  Some clouds along the gust front seem to be interacting with the haboob.

The National Weather Service office in Lubbock issued this time lapse video of the haboob.



The haboob came through during television station KAMC's newscast. They fortunately kept the view from their sky tower camera on, interrupting the normal news program:

Jay Peak, Vermont Skiers Get Awesome Sky, Impromptu Atmospheric Science Lesson

From @erikosterlund via Twitter, the sky over
Jay Peak, Vermont last Saturday.  

It was the perfect day to ski at the Jay Peak Resort in Vermont, right close to the Canadian border this past Saturday.

The sun came out, the snow was great, the temperature was comfortable.

But what happened in the skies over the mountain Saturday afternoon was worth way more than the price of admission.

Some high, thin clouds, the low angle of the December winter solstice sun, created a spectacular show in the sky.

Skiers at Jay Peak got to witness such atmospheric phenomenon as sun dogs, two sun halos, a sun pillar and something called a circumzenithal arc, among other things.

When there's high, thin clouds, which are made out of ice crystals, you sometimes get halos, sun dogs and the like. But Saturday brought out pretty much all the gorgeous and cool phenomena that cirrus clouds can muster.

Let's explain some of them, for the benefit of those (like me!) who were not lucky enough to be skiing at Jay Peak Saturday afternoon.

We'll start with sun dogs. When the sun shines through the ice crystals in those high thing clouds, a bright spot forms near the sun, at least when the ice crystals are laying flat, in a horizontally.

It's called a sun dog, I think, because it looks like a little companion to the sun, kind of like a dog taking a walk with its owner.

There was also a halo around the sun Saturday afternoon at Jay Peak. Those form when the ice crystals in the high, thin clouds are not all horizonal, but jumbled in different positions.

What must have happened Saturday is a lot of the ice crystals were horizontal, so you got a sun dog, but some of them were more vertical, so you also got a halo around the sun.

In fact, there were two halos around the sun, as you can see in the picture.

Now, what the heck is a circumzenithal arc? Say that five times fast.

A circumzenithal arc forms when sun shines through the top of an ice crystal and is diverted out the side of the crystal instead of going through.

You have to be at the right angle with the sun to see them, and there has to be a relative lack of clouds where the arc forms in order to see it. Jay Peak skiers got lucky.

Circumzenithal arcs are often referred to a upside down rainbows, or, the way I prefer, a grin in the sky.

Aurora Borealis (Mostly) Lived Up To Its Billing: Great Photos

From @DaveThroupEA on Twitter. A volcano and
Northern Lights in Iceland last night.  

The Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, put on an excellent show in much of the Great (Whitish) North of the world last night, pretty much as expected.

For a couple days before the event, scientists said a bigger than usual solar storm would help light up the skies, especially since the solar eruption was sort of, but not perfectly aimed toward Earth.

Twitter lit up with examples of some great views, and I've shared some in this post. The most shared has to be the first one in this post.

It was taken in Iceland, and you see the Bardarbunga volcano erupting with the Northern Lights overhead.

@hangingditch on Twitter provided this view
from Cumbria, UK.  

There might be more auroras tonight, but it probably won't be as widespread and spectacular as last night.    

The best comment about the Aurora last night came from @btvjim, otherwise known as That Guy, who Tweeted: "Isn't Aurora a dancer at Club Super Sex?"

Dan Russell, who is @DanRuss on Twitter, took
this shot over Lake Champlain near Burlington, Vermont
last night. 

Goran Strand caught this other worldly view in Sweden.  

The Mount Washington Observatory in New Hampshire got this
spectacular view. You can see an undercast of clouds
in the valleys beneath the mountain summit glowing
in the light from the Norther Lights.