The first thing I noticed upon walking out of the hotel this morning was;
“How come it smells so weird outside…”
and then,
“uh huh…today’s cloudy at 8am. Where’s the sun?”
That was something you seldom get in Cairo. And later on, I realized it was not a cloudy day actually. There was a sandstorm last night.
Being curious, I asked big brother, Wikipedia what is a sandstorm, or dust storm.
A dust storm or sandstorm is a meteorological phenomenon common in arid and semi-arid regions and arises when a gust front passes or when the wind force exceeds the threshold value where loose sand and dust are removed from the dry surface. Particles are transported by saltation and suspension, causing soil erosion from one place and deposition in another.
The term sandstorm is used most often in the context of desert sandstorms, especially in the Sahara, when, in addition to fine particles obscuring visibility, a considerable amount of larger sand particles are blown closer to the surface. The term dust storm is more likely to be used when finer particles are blown long distances, especially when the dust storm affects urban areas.
It looked like a hazy day in Malaysia. Remember the very bad haze in KL back in 2005? Something like that. But the sky wasn’t grey, it was actually brown!
The photo above is how it looked like from my office window at noon. Forgot to bring my camera along, so I’ll have to live with the camera phone for this shot.
And it rained in the evening! But only a few drops…
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