The Khrounh - the Sind Desert Sandstorm

One of the most feared sounds in the Sind Desert is the wail of the wind known as the Khrounh. It builds up to great speeds that can force a person to their knees, and it picks up the sand of the desert, whipping it across the ground with enough force to abrade exposed skin or hide within minutes, and even picking up small stones and flinging them with enough force to draw blood.
Experienced desert travellers learn to recognise the subtle changes in the view which indicates that a Khrounh is brewing – a shimmering heat haze that makes landmarks appear to jump closer and then further away again – and start looking for a place to shelter behind. The next sign is the relentless sun becoming less intense as dust starts to get lifted – a relief to the naïve traveller as the temperature starts to fall, and an urgent warning to the experienced one that there is little time left to get under cover.
By the time you hear the whistling croon (hence the name) of the wind getting up, you only have minutes before the full force is upon you, forcing you to your knees, and then the skies go dark as the air fills with flying sand, which fills mouth, nose, ears and eyes and rubs any exposed flesh raw. The sand is quickly joined by small stones and pebbles, which strike hard enough to draw blood and have been known to take out an unprotected eye.
The only way to survive is to take cover, but there is seldom easy cover to find. A single person may be able to find a crack in the ground to shelter in and wrap themselves with a sturdy cloak – fairly suffocating but still better than breathing the sand direct and feeling the full violence. But a caravan needs more shelter than that, both for the animals and for the goods they carry.
The caravan leads will constantly watch for rocky outcrops or valleys which could provide cover, and as soon as the first shimmers start they will lead the caravan towards the nearest one they have seen. On reaching the cover, they will break out the heavy canvas sheeting and sturdy poles which they carry for exactly this eventuality, constructing low shelters that will carry the wind and its deadly load over the top of the people and animals.
These leading edges of these shelters need to be solidly pegged down on the windward side and then buried so the winds cannot find a crack, otherwise they will be lifted and flung into the air, tearing the cover away and leaving the people and animals beneath exposed to the rage of the storm again. The loads are then arranged around the insides of the shelters, weighing down the folded-in edges of the canvas on the other sides, and the company hunker down to wait out the storm. These sometimes blow over in a few hours, but they have been known to last for days – days when the caravan is unable to move, make any progress, or even venture out for forage, and so they have to survive on the rations and water they are carrying with them.
Eventually the storm will abate, the mad flapping of the canvas calms down and the travellers can venture out and take stock.

Type

Natural