Simoom

Simoom, or SIMOON (Arab. samīm or samīn; from samm, 'poisoning'), is a hot, suffocating wind common in the deserts of Africa and Arabia, as well as in Sind and Beluchistan. It is essentially of the same nature as a cyclone: there is a central tract of calm surrounded by violent eddies of intensely heated air, and the entire system keeps moving slowly forward, generally from south to north or from east to west. Its presence is heralded by whirling currents of air, and indicated by the purple colour of the atmosphere. It often carries with it huge rotating columns of sand, or stifling gusts and showers of fine sand. It is highly deleterious to men and animals, causing the sensation of suffocation, together with great pain in the limbs. Spring and summer are the usual times of its occurrence; but it seldom lasts many minutes, not more than twenty at the outside. See DESERT, STORMS, WHIRLWIND.