By Steff Gaulter
You may have noticed that the Weather Addict had gone AWOL over the last few weeks. That’s because I was happily holidaying in the UK showing off my huge pregnant stomach, when suddenly there was a rumble in the jungle. It turns out that my little bun in the oven didn’t want to wait for his due date and was arriving all in a hurry.
I just about made it to the hospital in time (and it was touch and go), but despite his best efforts, my poor husband didn’t stand a chance. Instead my exceptionally squeamish mother had to be my birthing partner, but it all went smoothly in the end! I’m proud to say that we’re now parents of a little bundle of joy who we believe is the most beautiful little boy in the world…but we might be biased.
We returned to Doha at the beginning of March, enjoying the warm weather of Doha, taking little baby Mylo for walks along the Corniche and in trips to MIA park, until April struck. April abruptly brought an end to our outside adventures, on April Fool’s Day bringing the worst sandstorm that I’ve ever seen.
In the eight years that I’ve been in Doha, I can honestly say I’ve never seen a sandstorm like it. I knew there was a storm forecast, but didn’t appreciate how severe it was going to be. Despite all the doors and windows being shut, the dust still managed to seep into our house. I knew it had hit because I could taste it in the air, and alarmingly when we looked across the room we could even see the particles streaming past one of our lamps. At this point we realised it must be a monster of a storm, so looked out the window, but couldn’t even see across the road.
We decided to call it a night, as the dust wasn’t as bad upstairs, but at 2am, when baby Mylo woke up to feed, I realised that the air was horribly polluted. I wanted to put a damp flannel over my face, but what could I do to help my baby, with his tiny lungs? My husband sprang into action, sealing the window with cling film and putting wet towels under the doors. Meanwhile I sprayed the room with water to help the dust settle. Our actions certainly helped, but on the shopping list we added an air purifier.
The duststorm rolled into Doha around 9:30pm, so being dark we couldn’t see it approaching. However, some of you may have seen the pictures from Riyadh of the wall of dust that engulfed that city. This was the same storm that hit us, it had hit the Saudi capital eight hours earlier while it was still light.
A huge wall of dust like this is called a haboob and they’re not as uncommon in Doha as you may think. We usually get two or three of them every year; the trouble is we often don’t see them as they often strike after dark. If you do see one, however, a haboob is a daunting sight. It can stretch up to 100 kilometres wide and 1000 metres high, and as it rolls over you, the temperature drops, the winds pick up and of course the visibility reduces drastically.
I once saw one of these haboobs rolling across the sea, while I was in a boat sailing near West Bay Lagoon. As this wall of dust rolled over us, the winds picked up, the temperature dropped several degrees, and darkness fell. It was pretty scary to see the weather change like that, especially when you’re on a very small boat. Fortunately the storm that hit that day was nowhere near as bad as that of April this year, otherwise I think the boat would have capsized!
Haboobs are usually created when a thunderstorm collapses and air from high up in the cloud comes racing down to earth kicking up any loose particles. Unfortunately for us, there hadn’t been a significant dust storm in Doha since the end of February, but there had been quite a bit of rain. This rain water would have washed dirt and dust across the landscape, shifting the sand and soil and exposing plenty of fine particles. As the rain cleared, and the ground dried out, these particles were primed and simply waiting for a gust of wind to send them airborne.
Then on April 1 came the wind that the particles were waiting for. A cluster of thunderstorms drifted south from the Mediterranean, bringing heavy rain and strong winds. They drifted across Jordan and into Saudi Arabia, turning more intense as they did so. Arar reported 61mm of rain, which quickly dampened any dust, but the rain evaporated before the system reached Riyadh. This ensured that in the Saudi capital, there was nothing to dampen the dust and the storm continued to gather particles.
We all witnessed the result here in Doha, and we all had to clear up! It still amazes me how the dust can enter closed rooms and closed cupboards, and how it can coat everything. Now the only lasting damage from the storm is a feeling of dust in my chest, which I suppose means a trip to the doctor is in order. I bet the doctors have had seen a major jump in patients over the last few days…at least someone has benefited from the storm!
THE NEXT DAY: A road sign covered in sand on April 2. Hours after the sandstorm subsided, there was still enough sand in the air to affect visibility
