It will rarely snow in Saudi Arabia. There are also no tornados or earthquakes. Hurricanes are also equally rare. There is “supposed” to be a rainy season circa December – February but this past year that has not happened. However one thing you can count on while living in Saudi Arabia are sandstorms. My family continue to ask me what do I mean I need to dust, vaccuum and mop repeatedly throughout a day when it is sand storm season. Don’t you have windows and doors on your house that you keep closed? Well, I think the following brief video helps respond to these queries and more can understand that when I talk about a sandstorm and the dust seeps into every pore, this is why…
Filed under: Saudi Arabia, travel, weather
WOW! I have never seen the sandstorm coming like that! That looks really scary! I normally just notice that the sky has turned that eerie orange and it seems like dusk even at 2 or 3pm.
I meant to add, I have seen little mini tornado/whirlwind thingies just whirling across an empty piece of land a few times here in Riyadh.
Gosh that’s eerie, almost other-worldly!
We were once driving to Jeddah in a mild sandstorm, it was as though the car was being pelted, and our driver, a family friend and pilot, refused to stop, he could manage it, he said. It made for a scary drive.
I’m a huge fan of your blog!
I dont know why u bother youself with the constant dusting etc…just wait till its all over and then do it once and for all. In the meantime you can entertain your guests with games of tic tac toe or the even more fun …write you name and the date…always fun to be reminded of just how long the dust been hanging around…lol.
I hate the dust storms…you eat breath and just generally live with the feel of dirt in every crack …EVERY crevice!!!….not to mention it blocks the HDD quality viewing of my Greys Anatomy fix on my big screen…have to keep wiping it clean….grrrr!
I hate dust storms….
I’ve never seen an actual dust storm, living in the coast we just get the remnants of it all. That thick cloud of dust that just sits over the city for days. The eerie daylight as it tries to get through a thick overhang of dirt. Add in some good old fashioned humidity and it is really nasty stuff.
I’ve never seen a dust storm. I’d kind of like to actually (from inside a house that is very well sealed and insulated of course)
Just wondering, but is there a very high percentage of people with respiratory/allergy problems over there? Because this really does not seem at all healthy for the lungs
Tulip…the hospitals here are full of such people when the dust storms hit…the papers usually give warnings for those that suffer such ailments to stay in doors as much as possible.
I saw a tornado once while driving through Qassim on the way back to Riyadh… though much smaller in scale compared to those you see on TV… it was doing some serious damage to signs and even blew a car off the road right in front of us… was CRAZY…
only our tornados are brown in color
hehe
Thankfully we’ve not been in one as bad as seen in the video but we have had the ones where in the middle of the day it looks like early nightfall and you can’t go out because sand permeates everything. Not fun at all!!!
I hate hate hate the dust here. I suffer from allergies, and the dust makes it so much worse!
It’s crazy when we have to go somewhere during a dust storm and the car slides as if we are on snow (or maybe that’s just my crazy driver for a husband).
ps carol…loooove the new banner with the arabized kitty:)
And thank you for giving me nightmares for a week to come!
What a scary video! I don’t envie you.
Tulip, coolred is right the hospitals are packed. Also, I was releassed from the hospital after the birth of my sopn, on the day of a heavy sand storm. all the staff wore mask but none of the pastiets were given any nor did anyone mention to me there was storm. when i stepped outside and saw the storm i went back to get masks for me and the baby. i was afriad his whole little body would in hale all of the sand and be full!!!. visibility was zero that day!
and one wonders why there are so many strange diseases and infections in KSA?
Umm Sumayah – glad you like the new banner!
Ohhhh, how wild! So there is sandstorm SEASON? When does that run typically and how often do you get the storms coming through? I would think people would be unable to wear contact lenses during that season. Wow. So generally they are able to warn you that sandstorms are forecasted …. is it more like a hurricane warning where you know for days that one is coming or more like a tornado where you know the conditions will be favorable to one forming? Do they generally hit at a certain time of day? Are they long lasting like a tropical system or quick to visit and exit like a tornado?
Sorry for all the questions, but this is really new to me! I am used to the tropical systems.
I noticed the new banner, but instead of “Arabized cat” as one person wrote, my first thought was “Awww, a little Muslim cat.” Cute.
We have hurricaines,tornados and ice storms.None of which are any fun . We can loose power for days which is miserable if you’re not prepared.But sandstorms?At least as long as my roof holds I don’t have to clean more!
Actually sandstorms can and do occur all the year round. And yes, during a heavy sandstorm one would probably not want to wear contact lenses. This is when the Saudi men appreciate their smaugh and wrap it around their faces only revealing little slits for their eyes. A sandstorm can crop up suddenly and without notice and can occur at any time. They are really not like a tornado although sometimes winds will crop up and a “small funnel” will develop along the sands but this should not be confused at all with a tornado but rather think of it as a small sand twister. Sand storms can be quick or sometimes they can last for days if the meteorological conditions are right.
Subhanallah, that is really amazing. I have never seen anything like that. I bet visibilty is zero.
I can assure you visibility would be zero!!
This video brought back memories of when I lived in Arizona. We had terrible dust storms there too. Once we were on the highway between Phoenix and Tucson, and we had to pull off the road to wait until it subsided. There was zero visibility. It was even more scary because we were afraid a car would smash into us even though we were parked off away from the road. One literally could not see the road in front of them, much less another car.
Hubby always insists to me that Saudi Arabia has no natural disasters, but I think sandstorm and drought qualify.
That is very true that if in a vehicle and there is an approaching sandstorm, one really should not try to “drive through it.” Many fatal accidents have occurred during sandstorms due to the zero visibility and lunatic drivers!
Hey Susie! Perhaps this is why most Saudi’s only want to import cars from the U.S that have passed California Standards. I’m asuming it’s the sdame as AZ.
Have you been in Saudi during drought season? If so and you have heard ba prayer at an unusual time of the time, it may have been the rain prayer! I blogged about how it started raining cats and dogs right after!
The prayer for rain has been said yet again and let’s hope we get some soon in Nej’d. We need it so badly. And for those interested, I did an earlier post about Saudi’s drought and the prayer for rain.
here’s one of the earlier posts:
http://americanbedu.com/2007/11/14/america%e2%80%99s-drought%e2%80%a6what-does-it-have-to-do-with-islam/
And here is yet another one:
http://americanbedu.com/2008/05/03/its-raining-sand/
Susie…you reminded me of a white out I drove through once when on my way to Montana. It was like driving through a cloud…very white and very bright…and absolute zero visibility past your windshield. I was creeping along trying to not drive off the road which would appear as a faint line now and then which kept me going straight. The scariest thing about the whole experience….the 18 wheeler trucks were barreling past me at their usual speed damn near running me off the road…dont they slow down for anything?
coolred – gosh…I remember white outs when I lived near Erie, Pennsylvania…. and yes, same thing – the 18 wheelers would drive their usual way like it was a balmy summer day.
I was stuck in the middle of increadibly dense white fog last new-year’s night: It was like milk, I could only crawl forward in my car: It took me the whole night to get back home. People even got completely lost just trying to cross the street!
It became my first blog-post!
Hey that’s cool, Aafke!
Cool???! I read that blog post of Aafke’s the other day – sounded really scary to me! (Maybe I’m just the easily scared type!
)
Oh, I was scared! Very scared! Luckily I had my dog with me, and a tank full of diesel, but it was a very dangerous situation.
I’m referring to cool as it got Aafke blogging! (sorry for the confusion)
I imagine that rooves would have to be built differently there as a result of this unique wear? I have never seen a sandstorm… it looked pretty awful to try to breathe in.
Roofs, Mrs. C? Most of the roofs here are pretty flat and in many villas, one can walk up to the roof.
In responce to comment # 22, check this out…
http://www.accuweather.com/world-news-blogs.asp?partner=accuweather&traveler=0&blog=andrews
I was amazed the first time that, after a sand storm, I went out to my car. The dust was so fine that it had adhered to my fingerprints where I had touched the car window the night before. Though my allergies and my daughter’s asthma hate the sand storms, I think the light is great. Wrapping my DSLR in plastic and playing with the white balance has lead to some great photos.
@Mark, The sand storms in Saudi are indeed an experience! I do feel
so badly for folks who are asthmatic as they can suffer so much from
the sandstorm. You’re right – a sandstorm offers very unique and
interesting photo opportunities.
It is not strictly true that Saudi does not get tornados. A few years ago I saw video footage of two funnel clouds taken by a group of Philippino workers who had visited Sharma on the Red Sea coast. They were definitely tornadoes and not dust devils as the funnels reached up to the cloud ceiling. However, compared to those occurring in the United States they were quite small.
Welcome Colin and thanks for the info.
Just wanted to add that here in Saudi – there is indeed earthquakes and tornados. In fact just last week there was a tornado here in the mountains – definitley a tornado reached from the clouds to the bottom of the mountain – although it disperesed rather more quickly than those in th US. Also Saudi is on a fault line and it is not uncommon to have earthquakes – especially in the north west. Here is an article on the earthquakes last June – 2009 – http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/06/earthquakes_continue_in_wester.php
Ellie
xxx
Thank you Ellie for the info!