This is a quote from a report this past weekend by Aziz Al Saleh who lives in Kuwait. I had the pleasure of meeting this remarkable youngster here in South Africa last year. "As You might know that during the month's of April and May the weather in the Gulf region is not stable. Strong wind and dust storms can hit at any time without warning! Therefore, it is not advisable to travel during this time of year. But the love of the desert trips and tea outing couldn't help me staying home, so in the last weekend I decided to travel to one of my favorite places in Saudi Arabia.

I stayed there for about 2 days and enjoyed a full day....then, on Saturday the 30th when I was heading back home, a very very strong Dusty storm hit! and the wind speed was about 150km/h, some car windows was broken! at the gas station one of the fuel pumps was fully broken!! the roof of the supermarket was going up and down!!!

It was the moment when I felt that I was totally hopeless and weak! I cant get out of the vehicle and I cant move the vehicle because I dont want my side window to get broken (my Cruiser rear-end was facing the wind direction as it was the best solution) dust was little bit getting inside (thank good I am in a Cruiser) I was really scared in those moments..the sound of the sand hitting the vehicle at that speed and the strong wind moving the vehicle side to side was very scary!!

After one hour of the horror! lots and lots of rain came and then...everything is alright again..,

Today I washed my Cruiser and noticed that it had been sand blasted! some parts of the vehicle including the wheels and especially the rear-end, lost the gloss (it dosen't shine anymore!) Anyway, have a look at the pictures below that I took during the storm:"



"We both let our vehicle's rear end facing the wind since the side window is the weakest one I believe"


"After a while..rain came"



"Finally, moved again..."


"And took a picture! "


Edit. Add pic of another dust storm near city of Al Ain July 2011.