Story Hour
Haboob
Written by Gene B. Williams
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Here Comes the … Haboob
Do you know what the rain cycle is?
Do you know what makes the wind blow?
If you don’t, now you will.
You’ve seen a rain puddle disappear. That’s called evaporation. The water goes up into the air. If the sun is shining hot, it happens even faster.
The sun also warms the air, and the ground, and everything else. Heat rises, so the warm air rises. (Keep in mind that since warm air rises, cool air goes downward.)
We have a pretty big planet. It’s not the same temperature everywhere. It’s also not the same pressure. These make the air move not just up and down, but in all kinds of directions. Now you know what makes the wind (moving air).
The biggest “puddles” on our planet are the oceans and seas. Water evaporates mostly from them because they are so large. It also evaporates from lakes, rivers, and of course those rain puddles.
When it goes up far into the air, it gets very cold. That makes water want to come together to make drops. If there are enough drops, a cloud forms. When the drops get big enough, and heavy enough, they fall out of the cloud as rain.
A lot of the rain (or melting snow) flows in streams and rivers back to the oceans, where it evaporates, goes up into the air, to make drops, to make clouds, that make rain.
And now you know what the rain cycle is.
 ABOVE: Tornado RIGHT: Hurricane Katrina |
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Sometimes the air gets unstable. That means it doesn’t want to behave properly. Big storms can form, like thunderstorms and tornados and hurricanes. You can learn all about these. Some fun links are at the end of this story. For now, let’s look at a special kind of storm – the haboob. In Arabic it means “wind.”
This is a little harder to understand. Just remember the water cycle. Remember that heat rises, and cold comes down.
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| Haboob in Iraq | Haboob in Texas |
Get a map and find Arizona and the Gulf of Mexico. You’ll see the Sonoran Desert and near it a lot of water in the Gulf.
Now get a map of the Sahara Desert in northern Africa and the Middle East. (Do you remember that Gordie the Social Tortie comes from the Sahara Desert?) Near the desert is the Mediterranean Sea – a lot of water.
Can you see how both places are much alike? Both have a lot of water right near a large desert that gets very hot in the summer.
Water evaporates and goes up where it cools and becomes drops.
Wind blows the cool, moist air inland over the desert. It wants to rain, but the hot air coming up from the desert won’t let this happen.
Big, heavy clouds form. Suddenly, it all gets TOO heavy. It falls and goes splat! on the ground. Then it spreads out very fast. That causes very strong winds. And that blows dust and sand so hard that it can go almost a mile up into the air.
Whatever is in the way gets hit by a thick, fast moving wall of dust. It can easily snap trees and phone poles, tear off roofs and more.
Here are some fun links where you can learn more about weather. There are lots of things to do, and all of it is free.
http://www.theweatherchannelkids.com
http://eo.ucar.edu/webweather
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/reachout/kidspage.shtml
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