Phoenix Haboob: What is this Wall of Dust in Arizona? High Winds, Huge Monsoon Topple Trees, Power Lines (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

Reports that a haboob hit the Phoenix, Ariz. area surfaced Monday evening, leading many to ask, what in the world is a haboob?

According to USA Today, haboobs are enormous walls of dust that usually stretch hundreds of feet into the atmosphere. They're typically brought in by heavy, fast blasts of wind.

Haboobs are only known to occur in Arizona, parts of the Middle East and the Sahara, due to the sand-covered land and dry weather necessary to foster these kinds of dust-walls.

On Monday, winds up to 62 mph pushed haboobs into the Phoenix area, as part of a huge monsoon that caused trees and power lines to fall. Almost 14,000 people were left without power. Nearby streets and freeways were flooded as well.

A big brown cloud of dust and dirt blanketed the community by the evening.

This is Arizona's monsoon season-a wet, windy and stormy time during the summer that sometimes results in flash floods and tornadoes, in extreme circumstances.

Despite this storm being just one of many for Phoenix residents, the city's National Weather Service said that this particular monsoon spanned a much larger area in comparison to the previous winds and rain.

The name haboob derives from the Arabic word for wind-"habb." Since 1972, dust-walls in Arizona have been referred to as haboobs, since elements of the storms matched those occurring in the Sudan.

The term was first used by Sherwood Idso, who wrote an article in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society called, "An American Haboob."