A Sandstorm By Any Other Name

By: David Titmus
women working on laptops
Filters

Popular posts

Cell phone laying on a desk near a computer keyboard with the Twitch logo displayed on the phone screen
How to Add Captions to Twitch How to Add Captions to Twitch
lamp on desk
So You Want to Be a VITAC Realtime Captioner… So You Want to Be a VITAC Realtime Captioner…

Related posts

Wide angle of the 2022 M-Enabling Summit conference. people are sitting at tables and listening to a man speak at the front stage
VITAC Among the Panelists at 2023 M-Enabling Summit VITAC Among the Panelists at 2023 M-Enabling Summit
Gal Stern stands in front of the VITAC booth at IBC. The booth has the words 'the global leader in access services, transcription, and localization
Localization, Artificial Intelligence, and Inclusion: Takeaways from IBC 2023 Localization, Artificial Intelligence, and Inclusion: Takeaways from IBC 2023
Share
Copied!

Haboobs in the News

This week’s “Unsung Hero” is Tammy Uhl, a realtime captioner who recently covered CNN’s “Morning Express with Robin Meade.” While captioning the show’s segment about Phoenix’s recent sandstorms, Tammy came across the meteorological term “haboob.”

Did her fingers freeze? Did she laugh uncontrollably? Of course not! Tammy didn’t miss a beat and continued captioning (with a well-deserved giggle or two).

“Haboob,” an Arabic word which means “an intense sandstorm or dust storm with violent winds, occurring chiefly in Arabia, North Africa and India,” was used to describe the harsh weather in Phoenix. Needless to say, host Robin Meade and meteorologist Bob Van Dillen had some fun with the unusual word…

Robin: A GIANT DUST STORM ROLLED OVER PARTS OF ARIZONA LEAVING PEOPLE PRETTY MUCH IN THE DARK. … SOME FLIGHTS WERE DELAYED. DUST STORMS LIKE THIS, DID YOU KNOW THE METEOROLOGICAL TERM IS HABOOB?

Bob: THAT’S CORRECT. HABOOB.

Robin: THAT’S THE TERM. I DIDN’T MAKE IT UP.

Bob: THAT’S THE TERM.

Robin: IT’S FROM ANOTHER LANGUAGE.

Bob: IT’S ARABIC.

Robin: FOR PROBABLY DUST STORM.

Bob: YEAH, AKA HABOOB. SECOND ONE IN TWO WEEKS. NICE PAIR OF HABOOBS GOING OVER PHOENIX IN THE LAST COUPLE WEEKS. TRUE STATEMENT.

So, now that you know what “haboob” means, be prepared to see more of them in the future!