I’m bumping this post to the top because I’ve found a terrific picture of the sandstorm and its full extent as it crosses Saudi Arabia. The photo comes from Earth Snapshot.
Credit: Earth Snapshot
A major sandstorm is working its way across Saudi Arabia, from the northwest to the southeast. Both Riyadh and Dammam are experiencing situations where visibility is down to a few meters and heavy winds are blowing trucks around the highways. Many activities, naturally, are being postpones or canceled. The photos below give a hint of what it’s like in the Eastern Province:
Credit: Arab News
Credit: Saudi Gazette
Sandstorms blanket Riyadh, Dammam
Mohammed Rasooldeen & Faiz Al-Mazrouei | Arab NewsRIYADH/DAMMAM: Heavy sandstorms across the central and eastern regions caused major traffic jams in Riyadh and flight delays in Dammam yesterday.
The capital city was enveloped in a blanket of darkness. “I could not see beyond one vehicle; the visibility was only several meters,” said Nasser Ahmed, a communication officer at a private firm, adding that motorists were driving slowly with their hazard lights on.
“I was snarled up in traffic for nearly an hour on the highway. The cars were not moving at all,” said Abdullah, who arrived at work an hour late. “It was very dark and vehicles were crawling.”
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Find Saudi Gazette coverage here.
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February:12:2009 - 09:44
It’s a very long time since I have not found myself in a sandstorm; it was quite frequent in Baghdad when we were there; the first thing we noticed in the morning when there was a sandstorm was the specific smell; our home was not dustproof (far from it) so we had quite a lot of sand inside the house…
one more thing is the lighting: when in a sandstorm it seems like you are in another world, colours are so different;
nice memories ! (sorry for those among you who have to bear those sandstorms too often and are fed up with them)
February:12:2009 - 09:50
I only went through one, mild sandstorm while I was in the KSA. I did go through a pretty severe one in Cairo, however. There, you could not see across the street. Couldn’t breath very well outside, either.
February:12:2009 - 18:15
very scary. As a kid I used to have nightmares about tornados and sandstorms. Never been in one though.
February:12:2009 - 23:37
That’s a very intereting picture. It’s interesting to see these things that happen across the world.
February:13:2009 - 04:24
ITS MY FIRST TIME TO EXPERIENCE SUCH NATURE THING. IT WAS ABOUT 9AM WHEN SUDDENLY THE SURROUNDINGS BECOME COLOR ORANGE. THEN THE SMELL OF A DUST, STRONG WIND BUT AFTER THAT, ALL GONE. JUST LIKE A RAIN. AFTER TWO DAYS, ITS NOW CLEAR IN HERE.
February:13:2009 - 21:17
I woke up at 7:30, went out to heat my car.. I was thinking the weather is really nice, cloudy, gray.. hopefully it will rain. I prepared to leave the house, went back to my car and felt it was almost foggy a bit.. half way across to work I stopped at a cafeteria, by the time I left it, I couldn’t see the other lane from all the dust.