Eerie smoke-filled 'haboob' descends on Paraguay - The Washington Post

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Residents of southern Paraguay experienced an apocalyptic-looking scene Monday when a mile-tall wall of smoke, ash and dust descended on the landscape. Day turned to night around dinnertime as the smoke blotted out the sun, extinguishing the formerly partly cloudy skies as strong winds surged through the region.

The smoke, originating from wildfires in Argentina, was enough to cause streetlights to turn on and pose a respiratory danger. Residents’ eyes also probably stung from the ash and fine particulates.

Apocalyptic scenes as a weather front pushes massive cloud of ash – after weeks of forest fires in Corrientes, Argentina – northwards over Paraguay.

Within the last few seconds Asunción has yet again been plunged into a choking grey smog
pic.twitter.com/Vr0rprd1BF

— Laurence Blair (@laurieablair) February 28, 2022

The same parent storm system brought baseball-sized hail to Argentina over the weekend amid an outbreak of severe thunderstorms.

Videos posted Monday to social media, namely Twitter, revealed a towering wall of dark particles in Ayolas, Paraguay, a city of 65,000 in the department of Misiones on the Argentine border.

The phenomenon, which resembled the angled blade of a snowplow, brought speculation that a dust storm was closing in on southern Paraguay. Closer inspection, however, revealed that the “haboob” — the technical name for a dust storm — was carrying more than just dust.

Dust storm fed by fires and drought in Argentina

Several environmental factors converged to produce the blinding brew of smoke, ash and dust.

In Corrientes Province, Argentina, two years of drought have brewed conditions ripe for massive wildfires that, as of late February, had torched nearly 2 million acres. That’s about 10 percent of the province. Among the areas impacted were Iberá National Park and the Iberá Wetlands, where 60 percent of the landscape has burned.

The drought is exacerbated and prolonged by La Niña, a cooling of sea surface temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific that affects the strength and position of broad, regional weather systems. La Niña also tends to enhance hurricane season in the Atlantic, and can bolster the risk of springtime tornadoes in the southeastern United States.

In addition to copious ash and smoke pouring into the sky from the raging fires, the drought has also desiccated hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland, degrading the quality of topsoil and allowing strong southerly winds behind cold fronts to loft dust into the atmosphere.

Strong thunderstorms brew ‘haboob’ in Argentina

Argentina is no stranger to strong or even severe thunderstorms during the summer months there, or northern hemispheric winter. Their storms can rival those found on the U.S. Great Plains, and can produce destructive winds, giant hail and occasional tornadoes. In fact, it’s possible the world’s largest hailstone, estimated at 8 to 9 inches in diameter, may have fallen in Córdoba, Argentina on February 8, 2018, but direct measurement of the stone by scientists was impossible.

On Sunday, baseball-sized chunks of ice bombarded Santa Fe Province in Argentina as massive rotating supercell thunderstorms blossomed along a stalled frontal boundary. That front remained draped from Pelotas, in southern Brazil, to north of Córdoba on Tuesday. Cold, dry air banked to the south kicked up pockets of warm, moist air to the north, resulting in the development of windy thunderstorms.

Toward the evening, storms became “outflow dominant,” meaning their updrafts had weakened. In other words, they were exhaling more air than they were ingesting. That results in the gradual collapse of thunderstorms, which can send a rush of cool air thunderstorm exhaust rushing out ahead of the storms. That’s referred to as an “outflow boundary,” or gust front.

Ordinary haboobs that result from gust fronts can transport dust hundreds of miles, but Tuesday’s managed to collect ash, smoke and dust. The result was a darkened shadow-like veil that surged overhead, bringing an eerie sight to southern Paraguay.

Several videos showing the haboob rolling over beaches were shot on the northern shores of the Paraná River, which is about 10 miles wide, to the east of Ayolas.

In the meantime, additional thunderstorms are possible in the days ahead as the stalled front lingers.

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