30 Most Incredible Sandstorms On Earth
Wed, Sep 24, 2008
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Desert Sandstorms
1. This photo was taken at 8,000ft while flying over the Negev Desert in southern Israel. The sandstorm was moving at an incredible 70km/hr and rose up to around 1km high. Not a welcoming sight if it was your first visit to the country, eh?
2. These very cool photos captured a sandstorm gathering over Kansas. Maybe Dorothy and Toto will fall from the sky at any moment… or was that a hurricane?
3. Kansas seems to be where sandstorms like to party. Due to the amount of farming in the area, during the drier months, strong winds pick up the loose soil and sand. If it’s very warm, changes in the atmosphere produce much stronger winds near the ground resulting in massive duststorms.
photographer unknown
4. Sandstorms in Australia are not uncommon but, since farmers are working larger and larger areas of land, there is more loose soil and sand for the winds to play with, producing whoppers of sandstorms like this one rolling through Griffith, New South Wales.
2. Cities Devoured by Sand >
3. Satellite Images of Sandstorms >
5. The Harmattan – a southwesterly gale that blows down from the Sahara during the dry season – means sandstorms are a regular occurence in Mali. This storm has grown so big it’s difficult to see where the sand ends and clouds begin.
photographer unknown
6. It’s hard to tell the magnitude of this Sudanese sandstorm, until you look at the size of the people in the fore ground. Scary! And they’re just watching it come for them. Hard. As. Nails. Although, they’re probably so used to it they just cover their heads and wait for it to pass.
photograph unknown
7. Now, surely you’d leg it if you saw this one coming? And, judging by the distinct lack of people in the foreground, they thought the same thing. It was taken north of Agadez, in Niger.
8. Not sure where this sandstorm is but it’s still impressive, and kind of weird too. The sky is quite blue and the trees aren’t showing much sign of being wind-beaten, but there’s definitely a storm there.
photographer unknown
9. Sandstorms are the last thing you’d expect in Iceland, but they’re actually quite common and can occur suddenly in the Askja and Sprengisandur regions.
photographer unknown
10. A sandstorm gathers over El Paso, Texas and Las Cruces, New Mexico. This one seems to go for miles along the horizon.
11. The beginnings of a sandstorm rumbles behind the infamous Two Mittens in Monument Valley, Utah, part of the Navajo Indian Reservation. Great image, too.
Bojangler
12. A sandstorm gathers out at sea near Velvia, Fuji. Bet those guys on the boat are chugging along for dear life!
2. Cities Devoured by Sand >
3. Satellite Images of Sandstorms >
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September 25th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Amazing what mother nature is capable.
February 26th, 2009 at 12:29 am
My Daughter and her husband are stationed at Al Asad right now and last night I was asking her about the sand storms. She told me to google them so I did and to my surprise I found a lot of pics of a sandstorm right there in Al Asad from 2005. They are really good pics. I could not imagin being in the middle of some thing like that. My hat is off to all the milatery over there just for being there and especialy now seeing the sort of thing they have to endure.
March 27th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
this is the bomb and the next sandstorm is gonna hit claifornia