The dust storm continues. It isn’t as windy as yesterday, only gusting up to about 25 instead of 35 knots. But the chalky goodness is still flooding down from Syria and Iraq.
I’m usually the first to admit that I haven’t truly forecast the weather in a really long time and on this trip I tend to leave the serious science to our talented and capable NCOs. I’m a communicator and manager of the weather and weather-resources here.
That being said, today I actually felt pretty strongly that the dust here was going to continue several hours longer than originally forecast and I’m very glad that those of us who felt that way were able to convince those who thought we’d be back to sunny skies by now.
We were right! We’ll experience this dustiness through sunset, most likely. There were some who thought the dust would clear up right after sunrise.
And enjoy that one-and-only time I talk about my work here.
This base has been transformed by the dust. What little color there was on the base, such as vehicles, decorative emblems, etc. are now covered in a sandy film. Every exterior surface, and even many interior surfaces, have a fine dust settled on top.
There’s no point doing anything about it right now, we have about 9 more hours of this…it’ll just get all dustied up again.
It’s a ghost town. We’re advised to remain inside, although there are some hard-core types enduring the weather to take advantage of the lightning speed WiFi access right now.
I’m typing this up on my iPhone, then will come outside just long enough to transmit it.
Back to the gross!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The dust storm continues. It isn’t as windy as yesterday, only gusting up to about 25 instead of 35 knots. But the chalky goodness is still flooding down from Syria and Iraq.I’m usually the first to admit that I haven’t truly forecast the weather in a really long time and on this trip I tend […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[],"tags":[13,63,618],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ycQ0-5b","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":320,"url":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2009\/02\/shamal-101.html","url_meta":{"origin":321,"position":0},"title":"Shamal 101","date":"11 February 09","format":false,"excerpt":"I sorta figured this would happen while I'm here. \"What's that?\" A shamal. \"What the heck is a shamal?\" Well, let's define it here. It's a strong northerly wind that picks up dust from Syria and Jordan and carries it all the way down the Arabian peninsula. And it's shamal-ing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"air force reserves\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3027,"url":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2014\/03\/colorado-discoveries-30-history-colorado-center.html","url_meta":{"origin":321,"position":1},"title":"Colorado Discoveries 30: History Colorado Center","date":"05 March 14","format":false,"excerpt":"About our visit to the History Colorado Center in Denver.","rel":"","context":"In \"colorado\"","img":{"alt_text":"DSC_0549","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/DSC_0549-1024x678.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1370,"url":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2012\/08\/issac-preparation.html","url_meta":{"origin":321,"position":2},"title":"Issac Preparation","date":"26 August 12","format":false,"excerpt":"Yes, we are preparing for Issac. \u00a0We've been through this routine before -- in 2004 with numerous storms, and we've already had a couple near misses here. 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