DUBAI: Large parts of the UAE were hit by dust and sandstorms even as heavy rains lashed the country yesterday.
Authorities have urged caution on the roads and battened down for expected further heavy rain.
Homes and landmarks in major cities were caked in a fine layer of brown dirt and visibility plunged in the latest adverse weather following a series of choking dust storms around the Middle East.
Abu Dhabi’s official media office urged motorists to ‘avoid driving unless absolutely necessary’. Visibility was below 1km in Abu Dhabi and Dubai yesterday.
Multiple flights were diverted as dusty conditions impacted visibility. According to the National Centre of Meteorology (NCM), visibility dropped to less than 500m over the Abu Dhabi and Dubai international airports, Khaleej Times reported.
Operations at Dubai International (DXB) were disrupted due to the poor weather, with 10 inbound flights diverted to Dubai World Central (DWC) and ‘other neighbouring airports’.
“Dubai Airports is working closely with airlines and all our service partners to minimise the impact of the disruption and restore normal operations at the earliest. We apologise to our customers for any inconvenience caused,” the airport operator said.
Flydubai said the weather conditions caused some delays to a ‘number of our inbound and outbound flights’.
“We are continuing to monitor the situation and apologise for the inconvenience the adverse weather conditions may have caused our passengers,” said a flydubai spokesperson.
Forecasts of rainstorms this week, unusual in high summer in the desert state, follow the deaths of seven Asian migrants in flash flooding last month.
Emergency services said they had answered hundreds of calls for help as floodwaters swamped the streets of the port city of Fujairah and other eastern districts.
A series of sandstorms, widely thought to be exacerbated by climate change, have smothered Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iran and others this year, closing airports and schools and sending thousands to hospital with breathing problems.
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