Dust Storm Grounds Arizona Flights

Arizona’s largest airport ground to a halt Thursday night after a dust storm hit the area.

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport was forced to halt all flights between 8:00 p.m. and 8:45 p.m. local time as a result of the storm’s fierce and obscuring winds. The airport said on Twitter that the delays were “due to a summer monsoon storm” and forced the diversion of 24 planes to other airports.

Once the storm, which hit Phoenix at about 7:30 p.m., had abated, flights were able to resume. But the airport warned that “delays are still possible.”

At the storm’s peak, more than 10,000 people were without power and parts of the state were under a thunderstorm watch.