Middle East News: Heavy sandstorms throw life out of gear in region – Gulf Digital News

Middle East News: Heavy sandstorms throw life out of gear in region – Gulf Digital News

Riyadh: Sandstorms across the Middle East have delayed flights, closed schools and hospitalised thousands – a phenomenon experts say could worsen as climate change warps regional weather patterns.

Saudi Arabia yesterday became the latest country blanketed with dust that slowed traffic and made iconic towers in the capital difficult to see from more than a few hundred metres away.

Electronic signs along Riyadh’s highways warned drivers to reduce their speed because of the lower visibility, even as life largely went on as usual in the kingdom.

The national meteorology centre predicted that “surface dusty winds” originating in the east and bringing a thick grey haze would continue west towards Mecca and Medina.

Iran announced that it, too, was closing government offices and schools yesterday, citing “unhealthy weather” conditions and sandstorms. Average airborne concentration of the finest and most hazardous particles (PM2.5) was at 163 microgrammes per cubic metre in Tehran, according to a government website.

That is more than six times the World Health Organisation’s recommended maximum of 25 microgrammes per cubic metre.

Kuwait’s education ministry said classes were suspended yesterday but would resume today.

Neighbouring Iraq has experienced eight sandstorms since mid-April, a phenomenon fuelled by soil degradation, intense droughts and low rainfall linked to climate