It all happened so fast!
There I was curled up in my comfy chair watching House when suddenly all the balcony doors started banging open and shut. I looked outside and saw that the sky had gone all brown and stuff was flying off the neighbouring rooftops. So I ran upstairs to rescue the laundry and by the time I got back I discovered that one of the windowpanes on a bedroom balcony door had shattered and that absolutely everything was covered in a fine layer of dust. 
Well, I think it’s dust. Might be sand. Like the time it rained sand here (what’s known as La Calima) and the next day all the cars looked like they’d been breaded for deepfrying. And okay, it’s not like casa az is ever a dust-free zone, but this is crazy! I could even taste the dust in the air. Ah well, I was looking for a project to keep me busy this week, though this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.
Maybe I should just do a Quentin Crisp?
[photo by Judy Hedding]
casa azahar 
I was driving over the bridge to go to Hipercor (the casa is empty of foodstuffs after the Azores trip) when I looked back towards the center and saw it. Almost called you, actually!
Good thing you have that new vacuum cleaner.
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Must be coming over the ocean from the Sahara, which would make it pretty massive. Stunning photo.
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I happen to have exactly what you need . . .
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Dust from the Sahara can reach as far north as Ireland and the UK. Every so often we wake up in the morning to find our cars covered in a thin layer of dust.
Thanks for the advance notice! 🙂
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*Maybe I should just do a Quentin Crisp?*
:-))) I think he said something about it not noticing anymore once it had reached about an inch thickness……Is it that bad???
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Har! The last time I heard about a dust storm, I was listening to old Woody Guthrie records!
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I wasn’t quick enough to get a photo of the Giralda tower with dust swirling around it, Pipocas. Vacuum my computer? Hmmm…
Yes, coming over from the Sahara, ian and Colm. It doesn’t happen very often and I only remember it raining sand the once – that was weird. This dust storm lasted about 45 minutes and although it felt like it might rain it passed by leaving everything dusty and dry.
That is exactly what I need, FFE. You always know!
The one I’ve heard, Fanny, is something about never doing housework because after three years the dust doesn’t get any worse. I actually knew someone who lived like that. Quentin was wrong.
Rub it in, mister anchovy. . .
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I’m on year three point five and he’s right. Maybe North American dust is different?
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Ah, but do you have cats, Rain? My Crispy friend had two and there is nothing quite like what happens when dust and cat hair unite.
Meanwhile, it’s not a simple case of dusting, sweeping or vacuuming here at casa az. A powdery residue remains that can only be removed by either mopping or wiping surfaces with a wet cloth.
Well, never mind. My other project idea for this week was to finally get around to sewing myself a few more comfy house garments for the summer (since I have about 200 metres of Italian linen left over from my attempt at starting an online clothing store). And although I’d usually rather stick hot needles in my eyes than sew, at least I’d have something tangible at the end of my efforts.
Hmmm, maybe if I sprayed the cats with water and then chased them around the flat …
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what in the world? The last time I saw a dust/sand storm was in the movie The Prince of Egypt. *very perplexed*.
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I’ve been in one of those — we were heading into Phoenix, when it disappeared leaving an orangey-ochre blob headed straight for us! Even my teeth felt dusty from it.
That damp cat scheme sounds like if just might work, if you can convince them to do it upside down… 😉
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The photo above was taken in Phoenix. The dust storm here wasn’t quite so dramatic. Floors have all been washed now, surfaces to be wiped down poco á poco …
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Was you computer open when all this hit? I’d think that the dust wouldn’t be very nice to electronics. Maybe get a can of compressed air to blast the stuff out.
Compressed air — to get rid of flying dust. Weird.
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There is an amazing video on Military.com of a sand storm coming in at the Al Assad air base. http://shock.military.com/Shock/videos.do?displayContent=154703 If this link doesn’t work, go to Military.com, and search the “Shock and Awe” section for sand storm.
I have a detente with dust: I don’t bother it and it doesn’t bother me.
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wow, cool! (well, except for the cleaning up). We’re doing a spread on dust/sand storms in China in one of our books (Extreme Weather) at the moment. Its kind of hard to illustrate, your description was much better!
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I tried to give you a link to a wonderful video of a sand storm coming into a military base in Iraq yesterday, but cyberspace ate it. This is well worth looking up, go to Military.com and click on the “Shock and Awe” section, then search “Sand Storm” and watch the video “Sand storm at Al Assad”
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Not sure about the compressed air thing, SC. Might end up just blowing the darn stuff in deeper.
You could try the old polar bear in the snow technique, truce, but using yellow instead of white.
I found your comment (and link) in my spam file, hmh. Wow, that was crazy! And I like your attitude towards dust. 🙂
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We caught some of this in Alicante. Wasn’t too obvious while it was raining, but it left a thin layer of sand over everything.
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