Hail & Dust Storms
Ice and dust from above — giant hailstorms and the towering dust storms and haboobs that swallowed cities whole.
Part of Natural Disasters
39 moments in this segment.
- — The 1984 Munich hailstorm. A supercell dropped huge hail on Munich in 1984, one of the costliest hailstorms in European history.
- — The Mayfest hailstorm. A hailstorm struck an outdoor festival in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1995, injuring over 100 people caught in the open.
- — The 1999 Sydney hailstorm. A freak hailstorm battered Sydney with giant hail in 1999, Australia's costliest natural disaster at the time.
- — Australian red dust storms. Enormous red dust storms periodically blow off Australia's dry interior and engulf coastal cities.
- — The 2009 Australian dust storm. A vast red dust storm blew across eastern Australia and turned Sydney's sky a Martian red.
- — Asian dust storms. Vast spring dust storms from the Gobi routinely sweep across China, Korea and Japan, choking cities in yellow dust.
- — Giant hailstorms. Hailstones the size of grapefruit have smashed through roofs and windshields — some of the largest ever recorded fell on the U.S. Plains.
- — The record Vivian, South Dakota hailstone. The largest hailstone ever recovered in the U.S. — 20 cm across — fell at Vivian, South Dakota, in 2010.
- — The 2011 Phoenix haboob. A towering wall of dust — a haboob — over 1.5 km high rolled over Phoenix, Arizona, swallowing the city in minutes.
- — The 2011 Phoenix haboob. A mile-high wall of dust engulfed Phoenix, Arizona, one of the most dramatic haboobs ever filmed.
- — The Sahara's dust engine. The Bodélé Depression in Chad is the single largest source of dust on Earth, feeding storms worldwide.
- — The 2015 Middle East dust storm. A vast, unusual dust storm blanketed Syria, Lebanon and Israel in 2015 amid the region's conflict.
- — The 2016 San Antonio hailstorm. A hailstorm pounded San Antonio, Texas, in 2016, one of the costliest in state history.
- — Middle East dust storms. Vast dust storms sweep across Iraq, Iran and the Gulf, choking cities and grounding flights.
- — The Villa Carlos Paz gargantuan hail. A hailstone that may have exceeded any on record fell in Argentina in 2018, coining the term 'gargantuan hail'.
- — The 2018 India dust storms. Violent pre-monsoon dust storms killed over 100 people across northern India in 2018.
- — The great Asian dust events. Dust from the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts has swept East Asia for millennia, recorded in Chinese chronicles.
- — The Phoenix monsoon dust walls. Every summer monsoon, towering haboobs roll across Phoenix and the Arizona desert.
- — The Colorado Springs zoo hailstorm. A sudden hailstorm at a Colorado zoo killed animals and injured visitors, caught on terrifying video.
- — Great Plains haboobs. Towering haboobs — wind-driven dust walls — roll across the U.S. Southwest and Plains, especially West Texas.
- — The record Bethune, Colorado hail. Enormous hail up to grapefruit size regularly bombards the U.S. High Plains through spring and summer.
- — The 2020 Melbourne–Sydney hail. Giant hail smashed cars and skylights across Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney in January 2020.
- — Saharan dust plumes. Giant plumes of Saharan dust cross the Atlantic each year, reddening Caribbean and American skies.
- — The 2020 Calgary hailstorm. A hailstorm pounded Calgary in 2020, one of the costliest hail disasters in Canadian history.
- — The Aurora, Nebraska hailstone. A record hailstone nearly 18 cm across fell at Aurora, Nebraska, in 2003.
- — The 2021 Mongolia dust storm. A deadly dust storm swept Mongolia and northern China in March 2021, killing herders and turning skies black.
- — The 2021 Beijing dust storm. The worst sandstorm in a decade turned Beijing's sky orange, blowing in from the Gobi Desert and Mongolia.
- — Asia's yellow dust seasons. Each spring 'yellow dust' from the Gobi sweeps across Korea and Japan, choking cities.
- — The 1993 Black Storm of the Gobi. A colossal dust storm swept China's northwest in 1993, killing dozens in a black wall of sand.
- — Giant hail — the deadliest on record. The heaviest hailstones ever recorded — up to 1 kg — killed 92 in Gopalganj, Bangladesh in 1986; giant hail like this still smashes roofs and cars worldwide.
- — The Harmattan. Each winter the dry, dusty Harmattan wind blows off the Sahara across West Africa, hazing the sky for months.
- — The hailstorms of Hail Alley. The high plains where Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming meet get more giant hail than anywhere in North America.
- — The 2022 Girona hailstorm. Grapefruit-sized hail killed a toddler and injured dozens in Girona, Spain, in 2022.
- — The great Indian hailstorms. Deadly hailstorms strike the Indian subcontinent each year, killing farm workers caught in the open.
- — The 2023 Beijing sandstorms. A series of sandstorms turned Beijing's sky yellow again in the spring of 2023.
- — The 2023 northern Italy hailstorms. Supercells dropped record-breaking hail — up to 19 cm — across northern Italy, the largest ever measured in Europe.
- — The 1990 Denver hailstorm. A hailstorm battered Denver in 1990, one of the costliest in U.S. history at the time.
- — Black Sunday, 1935. On 'Black Sunday' a colossal wall of dust rolled across the American Plains, the worst black blizzard of the Dust Bowl.
- — Hail as a weapon of ruin. Giant hail has smashed crops and killed people for centuries; deadly hailstorms still strike China and India.
