By AccuWeather staff writer
Published Apr. 26, 2022 11:10 AM CLT | Updated Apr. 26, 2022 11:10 AM CLT
Concertgoers were forced to run for cover after powerful winds whipped up clouds of dust and damaged festival tents at a performance in Lay Myo Chaung, Myanmar, a town close to Myanmar's southern coast.
The concert organizers had been preparing the stage for a performance on Sunday, April 24, when unexpectedly strong and gusty winds tore through the concert grounds, with the wind-whipped dust giving everything in sight a sickly orange hue.
The intense winds can be heard clearly in the video, causing trees to bend over and festival decorations to ripple as they battled to stay tied to the ground. As conditions worsened, organizers and concertgoers alike can be seen taking shelter wherever they can as they battle to keep the dirt and sand out of their eyes.
"All we could do was stop and let it pass," said Than Maung Htay, one of the members of the team that organized the event. "We ran into shelters and hid until the weather was better."
A dust storm moves through Death Valley, California, on Feb. 15, 2022.
Dust storms are formed when high winds loft loose dirt, sand and other particulate matter into the air. Large dust storms can develop in flat expanses, like the Great Plains in the United States, where there are no mountains, trees or hills to slow the winds.
Dust storms occur most often in dry, arid climates. Myanmar is currently in the middle of its dry season, which lasts from October to May, making conditions ripe for dust storms to form, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.
"Much of that region has been wetter than normal over the past 30 and 90 days," said AccuWeather Lead International Meteorologist Jason Nicholls, who focuses on weather in Asia. "But it has been on the dry side of normal over the past two weeks.
The weather in and around Lay Myo Chaung has been hot and dry in recent days, and this pattern is expected to continue, with temperatures set to hover in the mid-90s for the next few days, slightly above the average high temperature of 90 degrees for this time of year. These high temperatures can lead to dry and dusty conditions.
Dust that makes its way into the atmosphere can have a serious impact on the weather. When Saharan dust is kicked up over the Atlantic Ocean, it can limit the development of hurricanes during the Atlantic hurricane season. Sometimes, that dust even reaches the United States, causing a dip in air quality along the Gulf Coast.
Saharan dust also blew into parts of France and Spain earlier in the year, darkening the skies and dousing ski slopes in orange dust instead of white, powdery snow.
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