Brace yourselves, here comes a sand storm

[Elie]

What would you do if you were at it's path?

http://img155.echo.cx/img155/3571/sand6ky.jpg

A number of photos from a soldier in Iraq, I think these shots are amazing!

Cheers,
Elie

[GuchiGuh]

AMAZING!!!
Thanks for sharing that!!!

[High_Jumbllama]

What would you do if you were at it's path?

. . .

Cheers,
Elie

I'd get the **** inside and stop taking pictures.

[DGhost]

I'd get the **** inside and stop taking pictures.

pfffttt, not yet. still not close enough for doing *that*.

[KvHagedorn]

Yep.. inside with a gas mask on.. how I hate breathing those small particles.

[Elie]

LOL if you were as close as the photographer in the very bottom picture, I would say yes find shelter fast and hide!!

[Dr Mordrid]

Looks like a scene out of the new Mummy or Hidalgo

Dr. Mordrid

[cjolley]

Dust Bowl.
Been there done that.

Ok, well my genes were.

[Jon P. Inghram]

Yeah, GIS for "dust bowl" and that's mostly what you'll get:

[Dr Mordrid]

I remember a trip we took to Texas. While stopping for fuel in the western part of the state a huge dust devil hit our van (Dodge B-300 stretch model).

The kids and I were in the store and had no problem, but the wife stayed in the van and had to go through a massive rock & roll until it moved on

To this day she still won't stay in the car alone

Dr. Mordrid

[Brian Ellis]

2 or 3 x per year, we get the tail end of a Sahara khamsin here. OK, only the finest particles make it over the 300-400 km of sea, but the visibilty occasionally gets down to less than 100 m and we get a layer of very abrasive and even sticky dust over everything, especially when it rains out. If it doesn't rain, it can last 2 or 3 days.

When I was in the army, I served a short time in the Egyptian Canal Zone and experienced a khamsin of much lesser magnitude than that in the photos. Fortunately, it lasted only about 30 minutes, but it was impossible to remain standing outside. We lived under canvas, and this barely afforded us much protection. We laid face down on our beds with the nose in the pillow while it raged. We had to take our arms to a central degreasing facility to ensure any sand in the oil was removed before they could be used and recleaned/relubricated. The paint on some exposed parts of vehicles was stripped by the sand, down to the primer. Not the most pleasant episode in my life. We also got frequent dust devils, usually 2 - 10 m diameter (we get them here as well; saw a big'un only the day before yesterday, about 30 m across, I would guess, but it was 100 m away from the road I was driving along)