An impressive band of lake-effect snow off Lake Erie hammered parts of western New York Monday into Tuesday, leaving parts of the Buffalo metro area with several feet of snow.
A haboob is a massive dust storm caused by strong winds, typically flowing outward from thunderstorms. This is typically seen several times each summer in the Desert Southwest, but was also more recently seen with an arctic front diving down the High Plains of the U.S. on Veterans Day 2014.
Of course, there are many differences between this lake-effect snowband and a haboob.
The two phenomena occur at different times of year in different regions of the country with different precipitation regimes (heavy snow falling vs. mainly dry outflow winds kicking up dust from the ground).
Also, a lake-effect snowband can remain parked for a time while a haboob typically races quickly thanks to outflow winds propagating away from their parent thunderstorms, or a fast-moving arctic front in the Veterans Day case, kicking up the dust cloud.
http://www.wunderground.com/news/buffalo-lake-effect-snowband-resembles-haboob-20141118
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