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Photographer Who Captured Historic Phoenix Haboob Reflects On Life After That Night

haboob
(Photo courtesy of Mike Olbinski Photography)
Historic July 5, 2011, haboob that rolled over the Phoenix-area

On July 5, 2011, a massive dust storm rolled over the Phoenix area.

The National Weather Service called it “historic.” The haboob made headlines and it jump started the career of one Valley man who happened to be in the right place at the right time — camera in hand.

Mike Olbinski was standing on the roof top of a parking garage in downtown Phoenix when he captured what would be the biggest dust storm to hit the Valley. His time-lapse video of this 100-year event went viral.   

“It set me on a path it in one way set me on path where I am today," said Olbinski. "You know, I shot this time-lapse video and suddenly all these people wanted to license it for different things and it was just a rush for a few weeks where I was talking to National Geographic, different people and different commercials, a few months later Al Gore’s office called and wanted to use it for climate change stuff.”

With monsoon storms appearing on the radars across the state, Olbinski will be hitting the road. Since capturing that image, he’s become something of a storm chaser. Last year, he was on the road for 48 days capturing storms across the country.  

The Phoenix Haboob of July 5th, 2011 from Mike Olbinski on Vimeo.

KJZZ senior field correspondent Kathy Ritchie has 20 years of experience reporting and writing stories for national and local media outlets — nearly a decade of it has been spent in public media.