At 5:35 p.m., the sun vanished over Maricopa.

A wall of dust, rising hundreds of feet into the sky, rolled across the city and the greater Phoenix valley, swallowing commuters and neighborhoods in a sudden darkness, described as “darker than night.”

It was a haboob, the kind of storm the National Weather Service defines as “a towering wall of dust carried on strong thunderstorm outflow winds.” For the next few hours, it unsettled a Monday evening and cut power for hundreds across Maricopa.

According to an Electrical District No. 3 outage map, storm-related failures knocked out electricity in pockets across the service area. Stanfield took the brunt of it, with 109 homes losing power. Forty-seven households lost power in one sudden gust, restored within minutes.

Nineteen spent nearly two hours without lights. Forty-one were left in the dark even longer. Others, a handful of Maricopa homes endured flickers of outage and repair. 

“It was nothing out of the ordinary,” said Monica Williams, Maricopa’s public safety spokesperson, “just the usual downed tree limbs from strong wind.”

Many, coming home from a day of work, took shelter on the side of the road to avoid the worst of the storm, which caused low visibility.

“I’m currently sitting on the side of [Interstate] 10 waiting out the haboob,” wrote Brandi Charlie-Lee, 52, of Copper Ridge on Facebook. “It was darker than night. Starting to lighten up now so I can head home.”

Homestead resident Angie Irizarry, 54, cautioned others online: “Roads are getting really bad, be careful driving!”

For some, the storm was a welcome spectacle, a reminder of desert life.  

“Feels like a real monsoon season!” one InMaricopa reader said.  

Another reader posted with gallows humor: “All I can think to say is ‘WE WILL REBUILD!!!’”

By the wee hours this morning, ED3 crews had restored power to the last affected customers. 

InMaricopa solicited videos of the storm from readers to crowd-source the real experience of watching such an awesome natural phenomenon. You can watch it below: