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West Texas Hit With 1,000-Foot-High Dust Storm

A huge wall of dust rose up to 1,000 feet high and 200 miles wide roared across West Texas and New Mexico Tuesday.
Dust storm at the airport in Lubbock, West Texas, on Tuesday.
Dust storm at the airport in Lubbock, West Texas, on Tuesday.National Weather Service Lubbock

A massive wall of dust known as a haboob rose up to 1,000 feet high and 200 miles wide as it roared across West Texas and New Mexico Tuesday.

The dust was lifted into the air ahead of a fast-moving cold front that reached Lubbock, already suffering from a lingering drought, National Weather Service meteorologist Charles Aldrich told NBC Dallas-Forth Worth. Wind gusts reached 50 mph, he added.

Originally an arabic term, a haboob is a word for a dust storm or sandstorm.

As the storm passed over many people tweeted about the huge dust cloud.