First off is an image of my work trailer and an average weather day at Speicher. Hot, pretty clear, windy (though you can't tell in the picture), with helicopters coming and going all day long.
Now, the other day, we had a duststorm approaching. Normally, about twice a week, we will have a duststorm hang around all day long. People are recommended to wear masks when walking outside, you feel dirty all day, and visibility is like that of a foggy day. To help you understand, imagine a day with constant, but light rainfall. Definitely noticable, but you get used to it and it doesn't effect you too much. Now, the duststorm in these pictures is what a tornado would be like. You can see it coming, it's very powerful, but doesn't last longer than 20 minutes. Plus, they are not common at all. I was very excited to get to view one of these.
Isn't that crazy looking? Now, for weather, this is moving very fast, but in our minds, not that fast. People saw this in the distance, and we had about 5-10 minutes to stand there and gawk before we would get caught in it.
There I am, acting cheesy for the camara, and clearly pointing out the obvious.Now, at this point, I go back inside b/c I don't want to be caught in the middle of it. Those who have been caught tell me it gets much hotter, windier, and visibility is zero. In fact, Dave's been in one that was much larger, much blacker, and he said no one could even see their hands for the first few minutes of the storm. This one wasn't nearly as bad.
I love this picture because it's like a before and after paint job. By the way, the person posing is the head of USACE in the north. Her name is Colonel Burcham. This last one is right before it really started to hit us. It only took a few minutes to cover the sky and make it seem like we were in a dust-globe.
Cool, eh? So, this is the tornado equivalant of a duststorm in Iraq. I hope you can get a pretty good sense of what it's like. Just another day in the crazy life of a desert dweller.
5 comments:
Wow...you really DO wear a jacket in the middle of the heat over there! interesting....
I love how 1/2 of every pic is completely covered in dust and the other 1/2 is complete paradise! That would be cool to get to see it in person, although I wouldn't wanna clean out dust from my inner ear for the next few years b/c I got caught in one!!!
Keep sendin the pics, they are great to make your stories come alive! You don't look totally insane yet...maybe I'll urge Steven to go over and make us some serious cash.....i'll start a list on things I could buy myself this evening! ha ha ha
Those are some pretty awesome pictures! Steven, who has always wanted to see a tornado up close, will be jealous I'm sure.
I'm home now!!! I will send you my calculator ASAP...today or tomorrow at the latest.
Love ya tons!
amazing shots. I loved the picture of you, even though it was a little blurry. Send another picture of you cause I am your ma and I miss seeing you....
Yay for the pictures (I got a sneak preview 'cause Beckie loves me... one is on my work computer desktop right now :-)
I'm glad you aren't Dorothy when these storms come, but you might be as crazy as Steven and Mom...
Love you :-)
Duststorms are AWESOME! The best one I ever saw was from the top of the bungy tower. We watched it come over the Frenchman Mountains in Las Vegas (the eastside) and frantically tried to take down the cords before it hit us. The elevator broke and we ended up having to close down for a couple days.
There's nothing quite as foreboding and watching the nasty side of nature crawl slowly towards you only to stick around and reek havoc for a while
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