- Nisreen Hatoum
- BBC News Arabic Correspondent for Gulf Affairs
2 hours ago
A sandstorm swept through the UAE, accompanied by heavy rain, causing flooding and human and material damage, with a decrease in visibility, which made the UAE authorities issue warnings to drivers to avoid driving except in necessary and emergency cases.
These dust storms, which lasted for days, disrupted air traffic for two days at Dubai International Airport, as 44 flights were canceled and 12 were transferred to neighboring UAE airports, but the navigational movement returned to normal on Monday morning with the storm partially receding.
The weather has changed unexpectedly in the Gulf, which is very hot in summer
Tweeters transmitted scenes showing the amount of torrential rain and the extent of damage, and other scenes showing the difficulty of driving in light of the low level of visibility.
These scenes were not limited to the UAE, but also included other Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia, the Sultanate of Oman and Kuwait, scenes that have become frequent recently in the Gulf region, which is known for its hot summer weather.
In an interview with the BBC, Mohamed Mahmoud, director of the Climate and Water Program at the Middle East Institute in Washington, confirmed that what we have seen over the past few summer months in the Gulf region in terms of increased activity of dust storms and severe thunderstorms that have led to flooding is closely linked to climate change. .
“Climate data indicated that the escalation of climate change and the increase in global warming lead to longer droughts and dust storms due to the drying of the upper layer of the earth, and thus dust is transmitted through the winds throughout the region,” said Mohamed Mahmoud.
Mahmoud added: “When it rains, even for a short period of time, it rains heavily, and because of the amount of rain in that short period, floods occur.”
Air pollution specialists confirm that the flying dust particles consist of metals such as silicon, aluminum and titanium, and various salts such as sodium, chloride and potassium, in addition to organic and inorganic carbon materials.
In this regard, Dr. Manna Al-Waadi, an assistant professor of atmospheric science and air pollution at Imam Abdul Rahman bin Faisal University in Dammam, explained that there are two main sources of volatile dust particles: natural sources such as deserts and sea salts or volatile substances from plants, and there are man-made sources. It is the most dangerous and comes from factories, cars, etc.
Dense dust storms may cause serious diseases such as “chest diseases and cancer”, according to specialists
Al-Wadi’i added – in an interview with the BBC – that some studies have proven that the impact of natural resources is limited on human health in the event of sandstorms, but it may often lead to asthma and chest diseases or even death in the event that sandstorms are large and continue for several days.
Al-Wadi’i added: “As for the sources that come from humans, they contain dangerous chemicals that accumulate in the human body, which leads to heart diseases, lung diseases and cancerous diseases.”
The head of the Kuwaiti Astronomical Society, Adel Al-Saadoun, explains the reasons for the recent climatic phenomenon that swept the UAE and other Gulf countries in the past weeks. In the Indian Ocean and headed north to the Arabian Sea, the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman, and thus affected Oman, the Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain, and then headed to Iran, which witnessed torrential rains and floods as well.
According to Al-Saadoun, what happened is normal, but unusual in his opinion, is her arrival in Qatar and Bahrain, as she had previously reached the UAE and Oman as a maximum.
A deep depression caused the recent climate changes that affected the Gulf countries
Al-Saadoun attributed the reason for this to the warming of the earth in the last eight years, especially in the months of June, July, August and September, which leads to the proliferation of water vapor in the seas and oceans and its escalation in abundance, which causes large atmospheric depressions, which in turn leads to thunder and sand storms, pointing to the Sandstorms in the Gulf region are caused by dust particles in the desert there.
Al-Saadoun pointed out that specialized scientists had expected this to happen because global warming would inevitably lead to hurricanes and storms of all kinds.
Another reason that leads to global warming – according to the president of the Kuwaiti Astronomical Society, Adel Al-Saadoun – is an astronomical reason related to the Earth’s rotation around its axis and around the sun. We are entering the beginning of the next Ice Age in 1500 years, when the Earth will warm up and begin to gradually decline.”
“We are now living in the era between the two ices” – Adel Al-Saadoun
Al-Saadoun believes that global warming, within its reasonable and moderate limits, is not a bad thing for humanity. Without global warming, the Earth’s temperature would have dropped below minus 30 degrees Celsius, pointing out that the world is currently living thanks to the blessing of global warming, he says.
Scientists expect that these depressions will intensify in the future in the Gulf region, where temperatures are high in the summer, and that these depressions will be more frequent, especially with the increase in gas emissions and with the continued use of fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas.