Weekend could be windy and dusty

Weather is expected to be windy and dusty on Friday, and thunderstorm and lightning are likely in the western area and islands on Friday and Saturday, experts said on Thursday. A sudden gust of wind that darkened the atmosphere and kicked up dust stunned people on Thursday morning around 10.30am, causing panic. Weathermen called it a squall, a clash of titans – winds coming from two directions – meeting over the land. Squall is a meteorological term for a gust of wind that comes and goes fast, but blinds drivers, causes accidents, flies debris and often creates small whirlwinds across the roads and in open places. As intersecting eastern and west-northwest winds, sweeping the region along with a large mass of clouds, created the unusual situation, motorists faced a sharp drop in visibility. The National Centre for Meteorology and Seismology (NCMS) warned of visibility as low as 200 metres. The phenomenon ended in 20 minutes, giving way to north-west winds to take over on Thursday afternoon, NCMS said. After a few hours, north-west winds lashed the region, picking up sand and dust from the desert. Visibility was reduced to 800 metres at Sharjah airport. Sharjah recorded a maximum temperature of 36.1°C while in Abu Dhabi, it was 32.