Some Texans are freaking out about “haboobs” online.

The freakout is not caused by the arrival of the massive dust clouds. Instead, each year a furor seems to arise about the meteorological term’s Arabic origins. The National Weather Service in Lubbock , Texas warned on Facebook of a haboob approaching the local airport. A few commenters didn’t like the use of the Arabic-borne word.

One Facebook commentator wrote: “In over 50 yrs of my life that had been a sand storm. We live in Texas which is in the US not the middle east.”

Another didn’t hold back in their attack on the National Weather Service: “In Texas, nimrod, this is called a sandstorm. We’ve had them for years! If you would like to move to the Middle East you can call this a haboob. While you reside here, call it a sandstorm. We Texans will appreciate you.”

Another commentator took on a more conspiratorial tone: “Do we care if the rest of the world laughs at a Texan???? It has been a sandstorm all of my life and only became a Haboob in the last 8 years!!”

Meteorologist Dan Satterfield pointed out the term “haboob” has been around for some time. Satterfield referred to a 1925 paper in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society called “Haboobs.”

Satterfield brought this up in 2014 – another time a Lubbock forecaster’s use of the word “haboob” set off viewers. The New York Time wrote about an outcry in Arizona, where one resident wrote the local Phoenix paper to say: “I am insulted that local TV news crews are now calling the kind of storm a haboob. How do they think our soldiers feel coming back to Arizona and hearing some Middle Eastern term?”

Hear “Big” John Howell discuss this with the WLS-AM 890 mornign show team here.