Video: Phoenix 'haboob' captured in time-lapse The images showed a massive wall of dust slowly covering an area of Phoenix, Arizona, shrouding homes in a heavy haze on Saturday. The dust storm, spurred on by 40mph winds, created poor visibility conditions and caused a series of crashes that closed at least one highway, according to local officials. Weather officials say some parts of the region area had visibility cut to less than one-eighth of a mile. The phenomenon is commonly known in Arizona as "Haboob," an Arabic term for a type of intense sand storm generally seen in the Sahara Desert and across the Arabian Peninsula.