Ashley May

USA TODAY

Texas is used to sandstorms, but not haboobs.

When the U.S. National Weather Service of Lubbock, Texas, posted a photo on Facebook saying “A Haboob is rapidly approaching the Lubbock airport and may affect the city as well,” people seemed more concerned with the term “haboob” than the incoming dust.

‪Charyl Espeseth Price: This is The USA.. speak that way. You haboob. ‪Sharla Southerland Hamil: In over 50 yrs of my life that had been a sand storm. We live in Texas which is in the US not the middle east ‪Kathleen Barron: A haboob?? Curious word for the northwest😊😊

Two other comments, that have since been deleted ignited much of the conversation:

John Fulbright: Haboob!?! I’m a Texan. Not a foreigner from Iraq or Afghanistan. They might have haboobs but around here in the Panhandle of TEXAS, we have Dust Storms. So would you mind stating it that way. I’ll find another weather service Brenda Daffern: In Texas, nimrod, this is called a sandstorm. We’ve had them for years! If you would like to move to the Middle East you can call this a haboob. While you reside here, call it a sandstorm. We Texans will appreciate you.

A haboob is different than a sandstorm because it’s caused by strong thunderstorm winds and can lift dust as high as 5,000, according to AccuWeather.

The name comes from the Arabic word habb, meaning, "wind." You might also see it spelled: bub, habub, haboub, hubbob and hubbub.

Other social media users came to the rescue of the National Weather Service, citing other commonly used Arabic words and the Arabic number system. Many were ashamed of the conversation overall.

Charles Russell: To all of you people complaining about a word. Do you all realize how stupid y'all look? I mean, the rest of the country and the world is laughing at y'all. Lmao stop getting offended over nothing. It's super annoying to the civilized world. We work too hard to make humanity modern and non-draconian to allow this sort of BS. Thanks.

Another commenter had another bone to pick.