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Saudi Arabia: A Well-Documented Sandstorm

Categories: Middle East & North Africa, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Environment

Armed with their cameras and video cameras, bloggers in Saudi Arabia documented a massive sandstorm which covered the capital Riyadh, bringing visibility to only a few metres and life to a standstill.

On YouTube, Riyadh Travels [1] posts this video which shows the storm creeping up in full speed and enveloping the whole of Riyadh in minutes.

Riyadh Travels comments:

An incredible experience to witness first hand being enveloped in a sand storm in literally minutes. It was clear, blue skies …. and in the next few minutes enveloped in a blanket of sand with visibility to only a few meters.

MadridyO8 [2] posts a video of the storm, also on YouTube:


Saudiwoman's Weblog
posts photographs from the storm and notes her experience saying:

Today we had a really bad sandstorm. In the morning you would have never guessed. I left the house at 7:30 and the sky was blue and clear. Later in the day, I was going to pick up my son after a lecture and I
had to drive (be driven) right into it. I took a few photos. You can actually see it approaching on the horizon. A trip that normally takes 45 minutes took twice that long. Cars were hardly moving and sirens were wailing. Firetrucks, ambulances and police cars were following the storm. It probably was a really bad day for people with asthma.

Life Thru Dusty Lens [3], who also posts photographs from the storm, remarks:

This dust storm came super fast. The sky turned dark and yellow within a matter of minutes.

Boyd Jones [4], who was in Riyadh, also posts a series of photographs starting with this post. Here is one of them:

The sandstorm raging in the horizon [5]

The sandstorm raging in the horizon

Majeed 99 [6][Ar], from Saudi Arabia, too posts photographs from the sandstorm, which he has collected from different sources while John Burgess at Crossroads Arabia [7] links to news sources about the storm.

Meanwhile, in neighbouring Kuwaiti blogger Frankom [8] complains:

ماكو مطر هالسنة .. شتائنا غبار وصيفنا غبار وربيعنا غبار وخريفنا غبار … وما أقول الا الحمدلله على كل حال .. أفضل وأحسن من غيرنا
There was no rain this year. Our winter is dust, our summer is dust, our spring is dust and our autumn is dust… but I thank God at any rate as our situation is better than others.