The USA military didn't name the first Gulf War Dessert Storm as some minor pun. A true desert storm with wind and sand and some times hail, can be as deadly as a hurricane, which are called Monsoons when they hit the Gulf states or Eliat or the Asian coast of the Mediterranean.
Keep in mind that Iraq, which is what they called themselves from the 6th century onward, means in Persian, lowlands, ironically, the same as what Holland's true name is, the Netherlands. If it wasn't for both countries' dike and canal systems, they would be continual flooding and loss of life and property.
We can assume that before ancient Iraq got its dike and canal system together flooding with loss of life was common, as we can see from the Gilgamesh story which predates our Noah tale in the Chumash.
Dust Storm Bedevils Iraq
April 29 —Mother Nature launched her own desert storm in western Iraq near the Syrian and Jordanian border earlier this week. U.S. Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Shannon Arledge snapped this photo of an encroaching dust storm at Al Asad . The tempest reportedly lasted 45 minutes and may have reached a mile (1.6 kilometers) into the sky.
The unusually strong sandstorm was caused by a downburst. "A downburst is a strong downdraft resulting in an outward burst of damaging winds at ground level." "Downburst winds can produce damage similar to a strong tornado."
Dust storms that turn day to night are not unique to the Middle East. In China windborne clouds of dust from Inner Mongolia blanket the far-off capital, Beijing, nearly a dozen times a year. In North Africa, Sahara sandstorms can whip dust into the upper atmosphere, transporting the dust to Greenland and beyond. Australia is not immune, either. Dust storms kicked up in the outback can enshroud the city of Melbourne, hundreds of miles distant.
Dust plumes blew through central Iraq and over the Persian Gulf in mid-June 2008. Like the Iraq dust storm earlier in the month, these plumes result from a shamal. A shamal is a northwesterly wind that often blows over the floodplain of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, whose fine sediments provide substantial material for dust storms in the region.
Israel gets sand storms, hail storms, rain storms, floods, snow storms, and deaths are caused. We just do not hear about them as the scale is much less, Baruch Ha Shem, then tsunamis and hurricanes.
Spiritually the biggest storm we Jews face is our own Yetzer ha ra. That does more damage to us as individuals and as a people than any storm has. Politically, our biggest storm has been the tsunami of bad press and anti Semitic loshan ha ra about us.But, as far as climate goes, Israel and the Mid East, including what used to be called Mesopotamia, is continually hit with harsh winds, what we would call sand storms, and well as rain storms, that cause massive flooding. Dry stream beds, called wadis, becoming raging rivers, and can wash away villages in an hour.A year ago, UPI reported that 70 people were injured by a tornado and ping-pong-ball-sized hail in Israel. An Israeli local paper [ha Eretz] also said that waves reached over 3 m (nearly 10 feet) in height. A sandstorm also buried parts of the country in 20 cm (nearly 8 inches) of sand. Five people were killed by flooding in northern Israel a day later.
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