Another heavy dust storm is expected to hit Qatar tonight, according to local meteorologists.
The combination of strong winds (up to 74km/hour) and poor visibility has the Ministry of Interior cautioning residents to stay indoors if possible:
Northwesterly wind with speed up to 40 KT per hour to affect most parts of the country. #MoI_Qatar
— Ministry of Interior (@MOI_QatarEn) April 24, 2015
Dust storm expected to affect different parts the country by 7 to 8 pm. All are advised to return from sea and other trips at the earliest
— Ministry of Interior (@MOI_QatarEn) April 24, 2015
The inclement weather is the latest in a series of sandstorms that have hit Qatar over the past month, some of them causing health problems and flight and school cancellations.
Speaking to Doha News, Steff Gaulter, senior meteorologist for Al Jazeera English, said the worst of the sandstorm should pass tonight, but that it will still be dusty tomorrow.
According to the Qatar Meteorology Department (MET), the storm moved toward Qatar from Saudi Arabia:
بدء تØرك الكتلة الغبارية من وسط وشمال السعودية ،ومن المتوقع أن تؤثر على معظم المناطق خلال الساعات القادمة. pic.twitter.com/hcZxaVwqna
— أرصاد قطر (@qatarweather) April 24, 2015
In a statement, the MET added that visibility may drop below 2km in some places, with sandy conditions persisting until Monday.
What are your seeing in your part of town? Thoughts?
In Florida we have something called “Hurricane Fatigue”. Basically newscasters constantly telling us that the big one is coming and we need to “hunker down”. Then guess what? Nothing happens. These giant sandstorm reports are starting to sound like that. Is this the 3rd “giant sandstorm” headed our way report in the past 2 weeks?
If people were to listen to the actual scientific forecasts rather than the hype they’d generally find much more cautious language such as “may” or “possibly”. But that doesn’t sell advertising.
And if nobody reports on it, people get up in arms for not being warned. Kind of a lose-lose situation!
Yes, please keep reporting on it. It would be nice if there was a regional atmospheric hazard indicator that covered both PM 10 and PM 2.5 particle pollution so that people could have better guidance about precautions. But if the prior poster knows of the location of ‘scientific forecasts’ that provide guidance about this please provide us a link! Right now I only see vague indicators, scientific or otherwise. Here’s an example of what I wish we had:
http://weather.asiaone.com.sg/weather-air.php
This is probably the key problem with dust levels. The data either not being gathered or if it is it is not being posted.
Though you’d assume the airport can’t fiction without gathering the data.
We haven’t had a chance to vet this site yet, but it looks promising: http://www.dohadust.org/
“It would be nice if there was a regional atmospheric hazard indicator
that covered both PM 10 and PM 2.5 particle pollution so that people
could have better guidance about precautions.” I ABSOLUTELY agree. I was really shocked that the whole country had no warning for that first horrible one. It is SO unhealthy and there seemed to be a considerable lack of conscientiousness about how unhealthy it is. For example, at the college where I teach we were still told to come to work even though the MOI had urged people to stay home. And in talking to locals who I work with, some insisted there was nothing unhealthy about these storms. PM2.5 particles are toxic! So yes, the warnings need to happen and people need to show more consideration for health hazards.
I would agree though I was thinking of commercial television in a number of western countries rather than Doha news.
but my android says weather is clear ..
my iphone sais it rains 🙂
Came back to Doha from Dukhan last night at 12… Pretty windy.. had to drive 80 on the 120 Highway. Very heavy wind!