Sandstorm

So on my way back from Gulf Mall I noticed a tweet from the Ministry of Interior stating that a big dust storm was coming so people should prepare. In all my years of being here I have never recalled the Ministry giving a warning that a sandstorm was coming -- it must be a big storm. So I went home, taped some paper towels over the only gap to outside that I knew of, the kitchen exhaust fan (if there is a strong wind sometimes a draft still gets through it), posted yesterday's blog post, and went to bed.

When I woke up the paper towels had been ripped off the tape and lying on the floor, so that was some wind. And from that little gap this is the amount of dust that was in the living room.

Of course social media and the newspapers were all abuzz with how bad the storm was, there were delays at airports throughout the Gulf, and thick dust everywhere. Because the storm happened in the middle of the night I'm not sure how it compares to other storms I've been in but it sounds like it would definitely be top three in the almost 9 years I've been here. Check out what the underground parking in my apartment building looked like:

It's almost like a fine layer of snow, only its dust. And this was the underground parking!

Here's my car in the underground lot, which I had cleaned a couple days ago.

At least it was somewhat sheltered due to being underground, if the car was parked on the street it looked like people had been throwing buckets of sand on it. For example:

Things had calmed down by mid-morning but there was still strong wind and a lot of dust in the air. Even now in my apartment I can still faintly feel it in the air. Yuck.

One neat effect of the sand was at the new Musherib district. The sand caused the poems that were carved into the walls to really stand out.

If you want to see more dramatic photos you can go to Doha News or just do a Google News search around the web. There's plenty of photos from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE of the storm.