forecasters say the lack of rain may even make it worse this weekend. and it was lower than normal temperatures that helped trigger this. a rare and sudden haboob in california s cocella valley. it s blamed for downing a tree on top of a pickup truck. now, here s a look at today s weather. heavy rains across the rocky mountain states up into the cascades. hazy, hot and humid across the midwest and steamy along the gulf coast. heavy rains falling over parts of the southeast and thunderstorms rumble across the ohio valley and up into the northeast. nearly a third of the nation is still gripped with a heat wave today. 90s from kansas to florida. much cooler in the west. only in the 60s, downright chilly, up in boston. the mystery of the missing president has been solved in northeastern pennsylvania. that missing president was actually just a statue of president obama. life-sized. someone took it from the porch
delight of tens of you thats who gathered to watch. fireworks were even shot off the brooklyn bridge. washington now, the big show at the national mall in honor of the 200th anniversary of the star-spangled banner. a new arranged debuted, new additions, some choirs, canon nos as well. san francisco s famed fireworks display last night as crowds gathered at tourist host spot pier 39. and 100,000 gathered to watch near phoenix. clear skies there in the area. just hours after the first sandstorm, haboob, what it s called, after it blew there. and arthur has been downgraded this morning to a tropical storm but it s still posing a threat for high winds and rains into eastern canada. the storm may have passed over the eastern seaboard but its aftermath remains. headed to the beach this weekend, be careful of rib currents. they can be deadly. alexandra field at jones beach on, new york s long
force base in north carolina that actually moved some aircraft to ohio out of fear of storm damage. this was just a horribly timed storm because businesses have a lot of tourists this time of year, and so, they will be affected by this. stay with abc news as we cover hurricane arthur. look for more live updates from accuweather and the carolina coast later on america this morning. wild weather also slamming arizona as monsoon season ramps up. an enormous dust storm moved across the phoenix area last night, temporarily grounding all flights and creating dangerously low visibility. 3,000-foot-tall haboob blew in from the south, fueled by a 45-mile-an-hour wind. and severe storms in virginia left a house in flames. lightning struck a tree over this home in roanoke, causing a huge branch to fall through the roof. a fire broke out on the top floor, sending smoke and flames shooting into the air. one person was inside at the time but got out safely.
low, really the scariest aspect of it is being out in a car because you hear so many times when these things happen there are 50 car pileups. let s get to it. here s the satellite picture, it happened 5:10 to 5:30. there s tehran. what s moving through, this purple, red, orange, the white, that s the clouds, the thunderstorm, and of course all the sand and dust and debris. so technically it s called a haboob. here s the deal. it has to be an aired area. as air is forced down and then this air is forced forward because of this thunderstorm that has a cold front with it. you really have to have very strong winds to boot. that kind of kicks up all the dust and debris and moves it. it s a wall of just brown dust that there s no visibility through. actually, these haboobs can get as high as 10,000 feet in the air. they re 10 to 30 minutes long,
developed along the boundary headed toward japan. and they are going to welcome that. not because they re getting rain but because they ve been so hot that that will allow temperatures to at least cool off over the next several days. of course the heat has moved from beijing, crossing into japan where last week we had the warmest day that we ve had in, well, 12 years. beijing hit 41.1 degrees. speaking of china, we re working hard to get this video turned around. a massive haboob across the northwestern part of china will have hopefully picture for you either this hour or the next. tis the season for the sandstorms to come in from the gobi desert. sandstorms, haboobs, as they re known in the mideast you ve been in many. i ve endured many haboobs. all right. thanks. well, a controversial prisoner swap has some u.s. lawmakers fuming. and who exactly are the five taliban detainees who were