History Main / DeadlyDustStorm

* Sand King in ''VideoGame/{{Dota 2}}'' can create a sand storm that sets himself invisible and damaging anyone that comes within the storm. The storm persists as long as Sand King stays in place, which can be very long.

* ''VideoGame/GoldenSun1'': The Suhalla desert is uncrossable due to massive sandstorms kicked up by giant lizard monsters. Your party (and the enemies you're chasing) can get past them by getting caught in the tornado and casting Douse, which forces the lizard to fight. The {{Muggle}} {{Non Player Character}}s, however, have to bring big barrels of water with them, in addition to being entirely unsuited for fighting giant monsters.
* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' has sandstorms roll in at irregular intervals in northern Kabul, Afghanistan. The sandstorms cut down visibility sharply for everyone (Grade 4 or above NVG negates it completely though, fortunately) but makes it a lot harder for the Soviets to hear Venom Snake sneaking up on them. The Support Unit can also cause sandstorms (even in Africa!) for 33,000 GMP and last a lot '''lot longer''' than normal sandstorms, aiding stealth operations tremendously, though it negates S-ranking for main missions however.
* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedOrigins'' with its open world mechanic set in Ancient Egypt features dust storms that randomly occur while the player is out in the desert. While it causes no damage to the player, it does significantly reduce visibility (which can help or hurt, as enemies can't see you very well either).

** In ''[[Film/MissionImpossibleDeadReckoningPartOne Dead Reckoning Part One]]'', Ethan goes seeking Ilsa Faust (Creator/RebeccaFerguson) in the middle of the Arabian desert, and just as a battle with {{bounty hunter}}s who have come to get her starts, a sandstorm erupts.

* ''[[Film/MissionImpossibleFilmSeries Mission: Impossible]]'' film series:

** [[Film/TheMummy2017 The 2017 version]] has a particularly nasty one unleashed on London by Princess Ahmanet, who uses her powers to smash every piece of glass in the city center into powder - that is, ''[[GeniusBonus sand]]'' - and send it tearing through the streets.

* ''Film/PrinceOfPersia'': The threatened world-ending apocalypse takes the form of a giant sandstorm to be sent by the gods. During the film, Dastan and Tamina take shelter from a smaller but still nasty sandstorm (they even bring their horse into the shelter with them) while Tamina tells Dastan about the history of the dagger.
* ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk''. According to Dr. Marcus Brody, an Egyptian pharaoh took the Ark of the Covenant to the city of Tanis. A year later, Tanis was destroyed by a sand storm that lasted an entire year - "Wiped clean by the wrath of God."
* ''Film/{{Stargate}}'': As the team is spending their first night on Abydos, a large sand storm comes up, forcing those not at the native village to take shelter in the pyramid where the stargate is. And then [[BigBad Ra]] shows up.
* ''Franchise/StarWars: Episode I -- Film/ThePhantomMenace'': Tatooine is prone to them, and when one blows up, Anakin offers Qui-Gon's party shelter in his house where they take the time to plan their next step.

* One of the concerns for any colonization effort on Mars is the planet's tendency to have truly ''enormous'' dust storms, some of which can engulf the entire planet for months at a time. Unlike what is depicted in ''Film/TheMartian'', however, the dust storms themselves are not deadly: Mars doesn't have enough of an atmosphere to let even a high speed dust storm cause any significant damage[[labelnote:*]]Andy Weir has specifically said that he was aware of this while writing the book, but [[ArtisticLicense exaggerated things for dramatic effect]][[/labelnote]]. The danger of a dust storm on Mars is that the best (read: lightest and cheapest) way to generate power on Mars is through solar energy, and dust storms rapidly degrade solar panel efficiency to the point of uselessness.