K had been up around 6 am where the weather was clear and beginning to be sunny like on a beautiful summer day. When the storm came out of nowhere day turned to night like an eclipse and the street lamps turned on. At first it was windy and dusty - then came the rain and lightning filled the sky.
(The view from our 16th floor mattress at 8.20 am - yellow/brown sandy rain being pushed against our windows)
I tried to take some pictures with my pocket camera but the entire window frame was shaking so badly that the pictures are blurry - still it gives an idea:
Before: the view around 8 am:
After: the view around 8.40 am (still lower visibility than usually):
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
I later read in the newspaper that this apparently is a common phenomenon - hence it has a name 'Sarayat' - which occurs between 14 April and 17 May every year. Despite this, we heard from several people who have lived here for 5-6 years that they had never seen anything like it before.
One third of the annual rainfall in Kuwait fell in the 1.5 hours it rained - and with the strong winds (of up to 120 km/h - 75mph) the water was blown into the apartment:
(Water rushing into the 16th floor apartment - running down the wall next to the electrical sockets...)
(It was literally raining inside the apartment as water was dripping from the upper window frame)
The heavy wind also made waves - I know they are nowhere near surf waves but usually the water here is completely calm and I have only seen small waves once or twice:
(Waves - the wind pushing the water inwards)
The strong wind also caused another strange phenomenon - I don't know for sure but it looks like the oil and pollution was being pushed towards land and it formed big black pools along the coast and a clearer turquoise stripe further off-shore. When the wind stopped the black pools dispersed again (would have been a good opportunity to get some oil out of the water):
(Big black pools forming along the shore)
I found this picture on a blog - someone was up early and able to get a shot of the storm building over Kuwait City (downtown) before it all came tumbling down:
(Source: http://projektcyan.com/?p=5525)
Sikke et vejr, flotte billeder! Håber det går bedre med hele bed bug- situationen. Sjovt nok var der samme dag jeg havde læst dit indlæg et indslag i TV2 Nyhederne om, at de også var et stigende problem i Danmark. De kaldte dem godt nok væglus, de er nok fætre til dem i Kuwait.
ReplyDeleteHej Lene - og tak skal du have! Du må snart få en pris som min mest trofaste læser :)
ReplyDeleteJeg tror, at vi er ved at have fået has på væggelusene (de skal nok være fætre men bedbugs ER væggelus, så samme ting), men jeg tør ikke helt erklære sejr, før jeg er sikker... Sjovt, at du så det i tv - de er vist et stigende problem i hele verden, især fordi vi rejser så meget og tager dem med hjem fra hoteller mv. som uønskede souvenirs...
Ja, det var vist lige præcis det de nævnte, folk får dem med sig hjem. Synes det er spændende at læse dine indlæg. Håber I har det godt dernede og at det går godt med at lære arabisk!
ReplyDelete