“Due to the strong wind activity from the north and also due to poor visibility, we had to halt sea travel and marine activity at the Jeddah Islamic Port,” said Capt. Saher Tahlawi, the director of the port. “Hopefully when the weather improves sea travel will commence as usual.”
On the other hand, Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport was reportedly unaffected by the storm.
“There were no delayed or diverted flights at King Abdulaziz International Airport due to the sandstorm,” said Khaled Al-Khaibari, spokesman for the General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA).
Hussein Al-Qahtani from the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME) told Arab News that the sandstorm was caused by a weather pattern that extended from the southwest to the northeast of the Kingdom.
“There will be a chance of a decrease in temperature over the northwest parts of Saudi Arabia with a minimum temperature between 3 and 5 degrees Celsius,” said Al-Qahtani. “There is also a chance for fog in parts of the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf in the early morning.”
Visibility in Jeddah was reduced to several meters during the peak of the storm Sunday afternoon, which coincided with parents picking up their children from school. The Civil Defense had reported no storm-related accidents as of Sunday evening.
The weather remained cloudy in and around Riyadh, while Eastern Province didn’t experience any change in weather or temperature.
Many Jeddah residents opted to stay at home, and those braving the dust were seen taking precautionary measures — either covering their faces with masks or with cloth covers, while hospitals reported a spike in asthmatic cases.
The dust blanketed many stationery cars providing a boon for roadside cleaners.
