haboob
noun

- a strong wind carrying dust and sand

- a desert storm whipping up sand and dust

- a violent dust storm or sandstorm

- a violent, penetrating sandstorm or dust storm

Collins English Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, American Heritage Dictionary

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WORD ORIGIN

Haboob comes from Arabic habūb, meaning a strong or blasting wind, derived from habba, “to blow”, “rush” or “move”.

The word was originally associated particularly with the violent dust storms around Khartoum in Sudan. It entered written English in the 1890s. Meteorologists later applied it to similar storms elsewhere, including Australia and the southwestern United States.

American scientists were using the expression “an American haboob” by 1972. After a spectacular dust storm struck Phoenix, Arizona, on 5 July 2011, the once-exotic term became much more familiar to the American public.

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WEATHER WORDS

Most Weather words begin with sailors, farmers, or local communities describing what they see. Meteorologists then decide which terms are precise and useful enough to adopt.

Some names travel remarkably far. Monsoon comes from the Arabic mausim, meaning “season.” Typhoon probably developed through a mixture of Chinese, Arabic and Greek influences. Tornado grew from a Spanish word associated with thunderstorms and turning.

Some terms face resistance. Heat dome, for example, became popular with journalists before many meteorologists accepted it. Critics considered it dramatic and imprecise; supporters argued that the public immediately understood the danger. The American Meteorological Society eventually added it to its glossary.

Until the 1970s hurricanes carried only women's names, a convention borrowed from a 1941 novel and cheerfully institutionalised by the US weather bureau. Feminists objected that it was absurd to pin every destructive storm on women, and in 1979 the lists included male names.

Perhaps the strangest dispute concerns haboob. The word comes from Arabic and originally described fierce duststorms in Sudan. Meteorologists later used it for similar walls of dust in Arizona. Some local people protested, insisting that American storms should simply be called “duststorms.”

But weather does not recognise national borders—and neither does useful language. Arizona kept the storm, meteorologists kept the Arabic name, and haboob quietly entered English.

Helga & Paul Smith

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SYNONYMS

dust storm, HABOOB, sandstorm, simoom, wall of dust (sand)


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“What would you do if a HABOOB struck while you were driving?”

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