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:
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: