TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — In Southern Arizona, Friday it was windy enough to torture the trees and kick up enough dust to mask the mountains.
The thick dust can cause real trouble for people with allergies or any sort of breathing problems.
All the wind has not shut down the annual Tucson Meet Yourself Festival in downtown Tucson. The festival is a celebration of the many cultures that merge in Tucson. It celebrates their food too.
The downtown buildings provide a bit of a windbreak, but the gusty winds can still threaten to blow the food off your fork.
Desert Forager features drinks made with prickly pear cactus, but Ofelia Slattara has had a thorny problem keeping parts of the booth from blowing away.
She says, “The weather has made it difficult for our tablecloths to stay intact. We've had tons of clips holding everything together, which makes it look a little wonky, so definitely that, and then one of our drinks has fallen open, so it's just kind of been a hassle overall. I do not like the wind.”
At Nuts R Us, Isiah Chavez uses a special roaster to coat nuts with sugar and cinnamon, but he says the wind’s blowing away his best advertising.
“Usually it smells like cinnamon around here, but right now it actually carries the smell away with the wind, so it does affect us a little bit.
But the biggest effect of the wind seems to be away from where big buildings break up the airflow—where the wind can scour the land unimpeded and blast thick dust into the air.
