Me thinks somebody has never sat through a Nor' Easter (snow hurricane) and then found out you couldnt go outside because the snow was to deep and blocked the door for days............I,m with Bernie !!!.......I'll take the sandstorm and take the leftover sand to throw over the ice on the road for traction!!!......LOL

Are sand/dust storms (haboobs) becoming more frequent in AZ? I don't recall hearing much about them a decade or more ago. Another side effect of climate change? Are there areas in AZ not prone to these paint scratching, glass etching, gasket ruining, vent clogging, electronics shorting menaces?

Barb is definitely right about the prevalence of sandstorms near deserts and farm land.  I grew up in the western-most county in the Oklahoma Panhandle, Cimarron County, and that county was the epicenter of the Dust Bowl of the 1930's.  Way back in the day, that country was all grassland until it was settled by farmers.  The soil is very fertile, but does lack for rain.  The farmers back then plowed up a lot of the grassland to plant crops and since they didn't practice low-till farming back then, when it would get dry, the wind erosion would start.

A lot of folks don't know it, but the same area of Oklahoma was hit with another period of dust storms in the 1950's.  I remember that because as a kid, I'd be out on the tractor in the blowing wind and dirt, pulling a chisel around the fields to break up the soil so it was less prone to blowing.  Below is an example of a chisel.

Terry