The Sudans Nile within the Sudans has no significant tributaries. The amount of rainfall increases towards the south. In the north there is the very dry Nubian Desert; in the south there are swamps and rainforest. The Sudans’s rainy season lasts for about three months (July to September) in the north, and up to six months (June to November) in the south. The dry regions are plagued by sandstorms, known as haboob, which can completely block out the sun. In the northern and western semi-desert areas, people rely on the scant rainfall for basic agriculture and many are nomadic, travelling with their
Operation Eagle Claw as a cracked rotor blade. Its crew was picked up by "Bluebeard 8". The remaining helicopters ran into an unexpected weather phenomenon known as a "haboob" (an enormous, nearly opaque cloud of fine dust particles that can follow a thunderstorm). "Bluebeard 5" flew into the haboob, but abandoned the mission and returned to the "Nimitz" when erratic flight instrumentation made flying without visual reference points impossible. The scattered formation reached Desert One, 50 to 90 minutes behind schedule. "Bluebeard 2" arrived last at Desert One at 01:00 with a malfunctioning second-stage hydraulic system, leaving one hydraulic system to control the