On Wednesday, the UAE authorities issued a warning of dust storms, urging residents to remain vigilant, as the Gulf state was exposed to a storm like the rest of the region’s countries, which caused closures and hospitalizations.
The police of the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi, called on drivers to “be careful due to the low horizontal visibility during the formation of dust and dust, and not to be busy with the phone and photography, for your safety and the safety of road users.”
Residents posted photos and videos on social media showing dust and lack of vision.
The Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building (828 meters), was not visible due to the storm, according to an AFP photographer.
The National Center of Meteorology in the Emirates issued a warning on Wednesday, calling on people to “pay attention.”
For his part, a spokesman for Dubai Airports confirmed that air traffic was not affected.
The dust storms that have been going on for days have disrupted flights, closed schools, and brought thousands of people to hospitals in different parts of the Middle East, in a phenomenon that is likely to get worse in the coming years.
Dust and lack of visibility fell over Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iran, in an interconnected phenomenon that experts attribute to climate change, lack of rain and desertification.
In Bahrain, dust storms continue for the second day in a row, while some schools have transferred students to remote study.
The dust associated with dust storms causes severe health problems for patients with asthma, allergies, chronic lung diseases and heart diseases, as well as the elderly, children and pregnant women in many countries.
On Tuesday, yellow dust clouds covered the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and the eastern and western regions of the country.
On Tuesday evening, the state-run Al-Ekhbariya channel reported that the emergency departments of hospitals and health care centers in Riyadh had received “1285 people with respiratory diseases caused by exposure to the dust waves that swept the capital.”
