Chris Hansen’s blog

has a picture of the Sydney dust storm in his latest blog post, and has one that, if anything, is even more stark. It reminds me of something that I witnessed in Phoenix in 1991.

I had given notice at Quantime in New York to move to Market Facts in Chicago. While I was serving out my notice, both Quantime and Market Facts asked me to go to Phoenix to do some work there with a client who was having some problems with a Quantime product. My first time in Phoenix (and, so far, my only time in Phoenix). It was a few weeks after the Episcopal Church’s General Convention had met there.

I remember that the evening we got there it rained cats and dogs (which is out-of-the-ordinary for Phoenix, I think). So I went to the client’s office building, which towered over most of the rest of Phoenix (I won’t say who it was but it is a big company—gold faucets in the Gents’, and so on).

I was sitting working at a computer terminal and looking out over the city while I worked. On the horizon I saw what I thought was some sort of cloud in the sky. However, as time went on it seemed to get closer and closer and turned brown. I asked the client what it was and he shrugged and said, “It’s a dust storm. We get them from time to time.”

Some dust storm. It moved rapidly toward the building and, suddenly, the entire skyline of Phoenix had disappeared into a brown haze of dust and dirt. This continued for a few minutes and then, as suddenly as it had arrived, it departed.

At that point I swore never to move to Phoenix. I guess I’ll have to say much the same about Sydney—although, to be fair, our former flatmate Wyn MSNed me this morning and said that it had never happened before in his experience.

I’ll probably still give Sydney a miss (except for a long-hoped-for sightseeing trip).

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