by Catherine Holland

azfamily.com

Posted on August 3, 2011 at 6:26 AM

Updated today at 4:54 PM

PHOENIX – Mother Nature took another swipe at the Valley, delivering the fourth major dust storm of the monsoon early Wednesday morning, which was also one of the warmest mornings we’ve seen in some.

The storm slowly rolled across the Valley between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m., leaving dust hanging in the air hours later. Some early morning commuters thought the dusty haze was fog.

While many people might have heard the wind, they didn’t realize another dust storm had hit until they saw the layer of dust on their cars.

The National Weather Service issued a dust storm warning just before 1 a.m. The storm pushed up from the Tucson area through Pinal County and into Phoenix metro area, bringing high winds and lots of dust.

It was mostly over by the time “Good Morning! Arizona” went on the air at 4:30 a.m., but there still was some thunderstorm activity in Pima County, as well as some light shower in Pinal County. That storm activity was dying down as the sun came up.

Because it happened in the middle of the night, it’s difficult to compare the severity of Wednesday morning’s dust storm with the previous three storms.

to read more, go to:    http://www.azfamily.com/news/Dust-storm-rolls-through-Phoenix-overnight-126660458.html