On April 22, 2010, a sandstorm swept across the western Sahara desert. NASA's Aqua satellite captured this frightening event:

Yegads. Click to ensandinate. This is a closeup of a much larger panorama at the border of Niger and Burkina Faso. The whole front of the storm was about 1000 km (600 miles) across! I looked at the zoomed image, but couldn't find Rick O'Connell's biplane. That's probably all for the best.