A towering wall of dust, known meteorologically as a haboob , swallowed parts of metro Phoenix Monday evening, plunging the city into near-zero visibility and leaving behind downed trees, wind damage and widespread power outages. The dust storm was quickly followed by severe thunderstorms that tore through the city, including Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, where a connector bridge was shredded by 70 mph wind gusts.

The National Weather Service in Phoenix issued both dust storm and severe thunderstorm warnings as the system pushed into Maricopa County Monday evening. The weather service warned drivers of near-zero visibility and urged people to “ pull aside stay alive .”

After the storms swept through, more than 60,000 customers in Arizona were left without power, with the majority of ou

See Full Page