The following images show it coming in from the east across the Emirates’ Golf Course. With about 15 secs between exposures, it was moving fast on a driving wind.
Click on the images to enlarge them
This is the normal view that we get from our apartment.
This is today’s view during the storm!
Looking outside now, everything is back to normal. We can see down to the Emirates' Towers - it's like the storm never happened!
17 comments:
Seriously what was that? I saw it coming from my office window, and all of a sudden, it was right there in front of me...Couldn't see anything anymore. Your pics are amazing as usual....
These are some FANTASTIC photos!
Now I just want to know why I missed this completely! I was even outside for a while this afternoon and can't say I even saw a hint of it!
Amazing pictures.
Reminds me of when I lived in southern California and would watch as a bubble of smog moved in from Los Angeles and completely blocked my view of the San Bernadino mountains. That was a major reason I moved to Hawaii.
Did this dust storm leave a lot of mess? Sand? Dirt?
Sand everywhere, and the really funny thing is that Grumpy Goat washed his car for the first time in 4 months, then got it covered again. There really is sand everywhere, but that's what you've got to expect in The Dusty City.
More seriously, spare a thought for the construction workers, not a good job at the best of times, but working on the 35th floor, outside, during a sandstorm must be terrible.
Thank God I wasn't out at that time of the day! From where my office is, it seemed like the sandstorm came up from the sea!
It's amazing how quickly these things blow up, and then are gone just as quickly again. I saw a video of a sandstorm in Kuwait, and if it had been a couple of thousand years ago, people would have thought it was a punishment from God....A wall of sand as high as you could see, and as it enveloped the cameraman, pitch darkness.
It happened once while I was out windsurfing in Abu Dhabi ...I was nearly blinded! :-D
I'd read taunted's blog yesterday & the warning that a storm was brewing........then grandma took her exercise of 100m waddle to the shp, came back & said "it's so foggy outside!". I went out onto the balcony & promptly came back in to tell her it wasn't fog, it was sand!
DSunshine: happened quickly didn't it? It was unusual because of the direction from where it came, too. Last night, there was even a cold wind blowing too - it took the edge of our usually warm evening swim!
Tainted: Amazing that you missed it!
Pandabonium: it leaves a lot of sand and dust - everywhere! Today I went for a couple of dives on a wreck about 20mins by fast boat due west of Dubai. The first 7m of water was full of sand sediment from the storm - we had to get down to about 10m before we could see again.
Clayfuture: definitely didn't come from the sea - as Taunted said in his blog, Sharjah got it first and then Dubai so it was moving in a South-south-westerly direction.
Mise: I remember seeing that video - or at least a still image of it! It got really dark here too, we had the lights on!
Jin: it did look like fog or heavy rain - I thought that it was rain when I looked out of the window. It wasn't until I went outside to take the pics that I smelled the wind, and it definitely wasn't carrying rain! At that stage I came back inside, because I didn't want to risk my camera in the dust!
I had my windows for fresh air when it hit. I thought it was rain at first. Thank you for those marvellous photos.
Who's seen The English Patient? I've always wondered if the extraordinary sandstorm in that was really possible. One dreadful night's camping on the coast makes me inclined to believe it. The wind came up out of a clear afternoon, and started a tug-o-war with our bedu-style tent, until several tent poles snapped under the strain. By this time, night had fallen, and the kids were either sleeping or cowering in said tent. First we lashed the guy ropes to the roof racks on the 4WDs - which rocked but stayed upright - until more tent poles gave way, and we had to get everyone out, and spend the night either in or between the cars. I was between. Unquestionably the nastiest night I've ever experienced, and in the morning there was sand embedded in every garmet, orifice and hair. Horrible. That was when I realised the wisdom of those vast Tuareg turbans. Gonna get me one of those if I EVER go camping again.
Hey ho, me again. Do you know about the eclipse at 10.25 tonight? I'm checking in the selfish hope that you'll post some of your photos of the event. =D If you show me yours,I'll show you mine, so you can bask in your superiority.
good shots ... we kindda freaked out in the office when the storm came by :)
MamaDuck: Did your house fill up with sand again?? You seriously want to go camping again, after that experience? :-)
Yes, I did know about the lunar eclipse. It's only partial though - less than 20% will be covered and that will be at about 10:50pm. I don't know if I can be bothered! :-)
Moryarti: I think that it would have freaked a lot of people - it was so sudden. If we hadn't been elevated on the 13th floor with a view out that way, we wouldn't have had any warning either.
That is some seriously scary stuff. Next up is: NZM goes NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC!
What an interesting post! Just occasionally the dust wells up in western Victoria from the exposed paddocks and a cloud of sand comes over towards Melbourne. But not often.
But when I was a child in the Mallee, dust storms happened most summers and I was terrified as a child, walking home from primary school in a sandstorm.
I hate dust storms, fog, smog, and heavy rain! I'm only happy when the sky is wide and clear.
Wendy
pls email me: keefieboy[at]gmail.com
Nzm: absolutely BRILLIANT pictures, well done. I am going to post a link to this post (if you don't mind) from my blog about this storm.
Wasn't it incredible?
HMHB
Its the end of the world as we know it. Dubai sees dust storms but I've never seen this as bad. Then again, I haven't lived in Dubai since 1997
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