Duststorm

Near-synonyms: sandstorm (broadly synonymous), haboob

In the 1930s, duststorms in the central U.S. were responsible for crippling damage to countless farms.

I saw a dust-storm at Kueichow which lasted for seven hours, burying some hovels and much agricultural country, and even producing a metamorphosis of the rocky bed of the Yangtze. Such storms have been observed as far east as Shanghai, but their occurrence at Kueichow shows that their area is not limited to the Great Plain or even to the region east of the mountain barrier between HUPEH and SZE CHUAN.