The cause of sand storms raging throughout the Middle East

A big sandstorm in the week swept across the Middle East, leaving at least 12 people dead and hundreds hospitalized.

Huge dust storms attacked the Middle East

"This big sandstorm is called haboobs , or" windy "in Arabic. Haboobs can grow in many parts of the world, travel thousands of kilometers, even surpassing the Pacific Ocean, " said Ken Waters, a US weather forecaster.

Sand storms, also known as dust storms, blew through the Middle East on 7-8 September, reducing visibility, affecting traffic and causing thousands of people to be hospitalized due to respiratory problems in many areas. in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and Cyprus.

Big sand storms covered the Middle East, on September 7-8.(Photo: NASA).

Lebanese meteorologists say this is an "unprecedented" storm in the country's history. However, Waters said, sandstorm is a natural phenomenon that is not uncommon. Haboobs appears to be most popular in hot and dry weather, prevalent throughout the Middle East this summer. Two factors needed to create sandstorm are dust or sand available on the surface, and the wind blowing continuously carries these particles in motion.

1. China: The city is red when the catastrophic sandstorm attacks
2. Sydney is red because of the unusual sandstorm

Scientists are unsure of the minimum wind speed to form sandstorms. Wind speed recorded in local sandstorms is quite low, only about 32km / h. Some larger storms, such as the hurricane, caused heavy damage to the cities of Damascus (Syria) and Beirut (Lebanon) this week, requiring higher wind speeds to travel further. The sandstorm overflowed in the same area in 2013 with a wind speed of up to 97km / h.

In the western United States, dust storms are most common between June and September, in hot, dry conditions, when the amount of moisture in the air is not enough to prevent dust particles from rising. Human construction and cultivation activities also contribute to the dust causing the storm. In the 1930s, obsolete farming practices caused massive dust storms called the Dust Bowl in North America, leaving thousands of people homeless.