One moment it was sunny, the next moment it turned dark as night as a wall of sand, dust, and rain enveloped Tehran early this evening local time.

“The skies over Tehran suddenly turned black as a wall of sand hit the city from the west, my wife called me to come home “nowâ€,†tweeted Thomas Erdbrink, the Tehran bureau chief for the New York Times.

The storm, sometimes referred to as a haboob (Arabic for blasting/drafting), hit without warning tweeted Alborz Habibi, an Iranian journalist and unleashed winds gusting to nearly 70 mph – downing trees.

– CNN/WP

– Picture: Mahmoud Ahr