Huge wall of dust rolls through Phoenix area

MARICOPA COUNTY, Ariz. — A monsoon storm hit the region hard Thursday evening, bringing high winds, low visibility and a massive wall of rolling dust from the south, reports CBS Phoenix affiliate KPHO-TV. “It is a huge one,” said Jerry Ferguson, form the station’s news helicopter. “This is a classic Arizona dust storm barreling across the southeast Valley.”

“This is one where we can’t really see through it. It’s pretty thick,” he said.

By 6:30 p.m., the wall of dust was headed directly toward the ASU Tempe campus and toward the airport, where planes were landing.

“He’s in the dust now. Oh, boy!” said Ferguson as a plane made its way through the thick soup of the dust cloud. “There goes that plane into the wall of dust. We’ll say that pilot has a lot of courage!”

A viewer whose plane was landing at Sky Harbor Airport just as the dust was rolling in sent KPHO an image.