There is no denying that the Northeast, and our area in particular, has gone through quite the stretch of horrendous winter weather where it seemed like a blizzard was getting dropped on the Tristate area every other day. But for all the perilous commutes to work, digging out of metric tons of snow and Arctic winds that seem to cut though those unlucky enough to be out braving the elements, would you rather have that or have to grapple with the effects of a sand storm.
Predominantly occurring in the Middle East, these sand storms or haboobs, contribute to poor agricultural conditions, spread disease and are just all-around messy.
According to Andrew Goudie, an Oxford University professor of geography, Saharan dust storms have increased approximately 10-fold during the half-century since the 1950s.
And if you ever saw the 2004 Viggo Mortensen film Hidalgo, the scene where he was in the middle of the Saharan Ocean of Fire long-distance horse race and a sand storm descended was pretty harrowing.
