Shiprock
New Mexico
July 2013
We’re almost all the way from the Four Corners Monument to Shiprock, our next destination. We should be seeing this massive rock by now, but instead, we are having an experience neither one of us have ever had before.
A month ago, while in Phoenix the night before summiting Humphreys Peak, the high point of Arizona, Lisa’s friend Peggy hosted us. Peggy explained, “It doesn’t rain here much, but when it does, it’s a dirty rain. The car washes go bonanza after a storm because the rain mixes with dirt and leaves a deposit of crud all over your car. Also on your clothes, in your hair and anything else you have outside of buildings. Everything gets trashed and needs to be cleaned up afterward.”
When this atmospheric phenomenon gets epic, it is called a haboob. Haboob has to be the greatest name ever for a weather event. Haboob is an Arabic word that means “blasting” or “drafting” or “wind.” It’s a monster dust storm, sometimes mixing with rain. Haboobs are common in Arabia, North Africa and India, which explains the Arabic origin of the word. But doggone if they don’t occur here in the midwestern United States too.
As much fun as it could be, haboob is not an obscene word.
The formation of a haboob is kind of intriguing. The rain evaporates in the dry air, making it cold and dense. This heavy air then falls rapidly, hitting the ground with some considerable force, raising the dust and sand, stirring them up like a stupendous margarita, and then thrusting the mixture back up into the air, like a blender when the top blows off. Rinse and repeat. These mighty storms seem conjured from the laboratory of a sorcerer as they come up suddenly, have immense sheer walls and can be of massive proportion. What’s the best thing to do when you see a haboob? Get your ass out of there.
Given how huge a haboob can be, this is wise but occasionally useless advice.
A few miles out from Shiprock, we encounter, you guessed it, a haboob. We drive through it — there is nowhere else to go.
Trying to find our 1800-foot tall landmark through the impenetrable storm, Ship Rock is no more than a rumor. We can’t see the road more than two car lengths in front of us much less this imposing monolith!
After a while, the storm moves off and the sky clears. And there it is! Our haboob-hidden, enormous rock.
