life style of the sandstorm???
whilst here, could i ask you guys to tell me what you know about the life and death of sandstorms???
one night going from BRU to DJE and just coming overhead TUN, ATC called and told us that our destination and alternate were both below minimums. there had been nothing forecast and i was surprized. i asked him what the cause was and whilst waiting for his reply, i did look out my left window and saw TUN underneath as clear as a bell and looking very enticing at the moment. he then said it was due to sandstorms.
my first impluse: considering--1)-this was against the forecast wx that i had received, 2)-both dest and alt were afflicted by the same type wx, perhaps the mother of all sandstorms 3)-my ignorance about sandstorm life styles 4)-not having a whole lot of fuel to burn whilst flying in circles, 5)-concern that this unforecast sandstorm might last longer than my fuel and could grow to engulf the airport below me if i delayed, 6)-knowing that airports don't grow on trees in that area like they do in mainland europe--was to land just below me at tunis and then go from there. the FO thought that was a good idea as well, since he had no sand in his flight bag either.
we ended up waiting about an hour after landing before the wx had improved to above mins-which by the way, was non precision-due wind contrary to the ILS at dest, and went on.
to this day, i have not been able to find much information about the life style of the sandstorm. one person i flew with had extensive experience in the sandpit and he told me they could last from 30 minutes to 2 days.
any help would be appreciated.