simoom

plural simooms

1. A hot, dry, suffocating, dust-laden wind of the desert, particularly of Arabia, Syria, and neighboring countries, generated by the extreme heat of the parched deserts or sandy plains.

   Stephen's heart had withered up like a flower of the desert that feels the simoom coming from afar.

   1916, James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Macmillan Press Ltd, paperback, page 101

   2 more examples

   Indeed, every appearance warranted me in apprehending a Simoon [sic]. I told the captain my fears; but he paid no attention to what I said, and left me without deigning to give a reply.

   1833, Edgar Allan Poe, MS. Found in a Bottle

   The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom. Whirling wreaths and columns of burning wind, rushed around and over them.

   1892, James Yoxall, chapter 5, in The Lonely Pyramid