Genesis 41:6

Blasted with the east wind— To this wind, Bishop Patrick observes, is ascribed in Scripture all the mischiefs done to corn or fruit, by blasting, smutting, mildews, locusts, &c. Exodus 10:13.Psalms 78:26. Ezekiel 17:10. Jonah 4:8. It is more pernicious, in AEgygt than in other places, because it comes through the parched desarts of Arabia. Thevenot, in his Travels, (part I. book ii. c. 34.) gives an account that, in the year 1658, two thousand men were destroyed in a night: by one of these blasting winds: and the same author says (ch. 80) that "these unwholesome winds blow about Grand Cairo fifty days together from the beginning of April, filling all around with suffocating dust."