MENA: Does Rain Bring Happiness or Misery?  · Global Voices
Eman AbdElRahman

Many bloggers and Twitter users from Egypt and different parts in MENA region reported rain and some dusty storms today. Depending on their circumstances, some welcomed the drops of rain with joy while others braced themselves for the storms, flooding and heartbreak.
From Syria:
@mulanrady : مطر غزير يعم سورية كلها. دائما هناك ارتباط بين المطر والخير. عندما تمطر تصبح وجوه الناس اكثر سعادة. وتصبح العيون أكثر بريق.
From Saudi Arabia:
@alfarhan : عواصف ترابية رهيبة تضرب جدة. الرؤية جداً متدنيه. نفسي نلزق موضوع العاصفة بأمانة جدة بس ماني عارف كيف ؟
@sfatani : Jeddah Dusty and stormy #jeddah
From Jordan:
@mkhawaja : مطر مطر مطر
From Egypt, more rain was monitored in Alexandria and downtown Cairo:
Zeinobia was commenting about rain in Egypt.
@Zeinobia : raining in Mohendessin crazily I have not seen rain like this for years
@Ssirgany : It was a mix of light rain and sunshine on my way to the office (Salah Salem from Helio), but now it's cloudy & raining heavily in Dokki
@EngyG : it's raining in mohandessin sporadically, bas it is! ;)
@maggieosama : it's raining here alot in Garden City
Andrew who lives in Katameyya also confirmed rain!
@andrewheiss : Rain! This is crazy!
In Alexandria, as always, it rained heavily and small snow flakes have been observed:
@linuxawy :  it was raining heavily in alex, and we got small ice too.. but it just stopped
@Sarah_ElShafie : Cloudy Some Rain No Storm…. Alexandria, Egypt:)… Looks like the sun will come up now..
Sadly Cat of Desert noted a sad event that happened due to rain in Sinai:
@catofdesert : مصرع مواطن وفقد أخرين في سيول جارفة بوسط سيناء
At Egyptian Chronicles, Zeinobia has more information on the Sinai floods. She says:
Today the weather was bad in Egypt , some areas were lucky enough to avoid heavy rains like for instance Cairo but some areas were unlucky as the heavy rains turned in to flood and this is just the start according to weather forecast.
Officially 4 citizens have been killed , hopefully I will get a better information later today.
Aswan , North Sinai and South Sinai have the bigger share in losses because of the rains that turned in to floods since the morning.
The news gets even worse:
A British tourist has died in accident in the Nile because of the heavy rains in Aswan today. I feel sorry for him along with all those who died today.
There are rumors that the Egyptian and Israeli forces on our borders searching a missing group of Israeli tourists. Already the citizens in Sinai found themselves in front of an Israeli jeep brought by the floods in the morning !!
Also I read a tweet that the Sharm El-Sheikh airport was badly damaged in the rains !!
Back in Sinai, Zeinobia says the situation is dire and help is needed:
Things in Sinai are not that great at all and it needs urgent help , I hope that the army will save the day as usual. The people in Sinai are praying that the rains do not destroy their houses and kill them.
It is worth mentioning that residents of Luxor in Upper Egypt also confirmed heavy rains – the first in two years.
A side small talk happened between Egyptian bloggers Embee and Tarek Amr, with the latter on the opposite side of everybody else, and didn't want rain to fall.
@embee : let's hope the #rain gets here SOON
@gr33ndata : Oh no, please not, I hate #rain, I hate it so much.
@embee : but #rain cleans the streets.. And the trees! How could you hate it?
@gr33ndata : Rain cleans there everywhere but not here in Egypt. Here it makes them even dirtier. #Rain
Yasser Ahmad concluded saying:
@YasserAhmad : Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain!