Chasing the Elusive al-Khamsin, Wind of Legend

T. Paradise

Sunset at as-Sabatah, Wadi Rum, Jordan.

Sometimes, one moment during fieldwork can be so impactful it changes the way we think about the world around us. Having worked in Jordan for 35 years analyzing sandstone architecture and landforms, sleeping in Bedouin tents and documenting hundreds of ancient carved rock tombs and monuments, professor Tom Paradise has been involved with more than 16 TV specials on the region explaining the deterioration of this ancient (and famous) landscape and architecture in Petra and Wadi Rum in Southern Jordan.

Feared and recorded since tales were told, the notoriously ferocious Khamsin winds have missed and eluded Paradise and research teams since 1990. However, in May 2023, when conducting geomorphic and cartographic research in Wadi Rum, Jordan, near the Saudi border, they were fortunately loaded with field equipment when the rare winds hit! Lasting only 83 minutes, these rare southerly winds stirred up the desert floor creating a wall of dust and sand. The gales gusted up to more than 120 kph (75-plus mph) while the team recorded the dramatic event.

Not only was it an outrageous experience, but these "winds of legend" profoundly challenged our understanding about arid-lands landscapes, landforms, geomorphology and environmental dynamics. Was such an extraordinary and extreme episode able to change the towering sandstone cliffs and massive dune fields blowing only a few hours each year, or was it our conventional theories of uniformitarianism in the sciences that truly change these iconic desert landscapes? For a team of veteran field geoscientists and graduate students, our way of looking at the desert was changed forever.

Please join Paradise and the Geosciences Department at the U of A at 3:05 p.m. Friday, April 25, in Gearhart Hall room 26 for an exciting and visually stunning talk about this infamous wind, in an amazing landscape often depicted in films as other worldly planets like Mars (The Martian), Arrakis (Dune), Jedha (Star Wars Rogue One) and Paasana (Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker).