Weather Havoc

The weather in Qtar is getting hotter day by day. It even reached 52C on one of the afternoons. At least the one recorded by my car digital thermometre display. At night it can reach even up to 38C. When the wind blows, you can feel the heat scraping your skin. Like sitting in front of the aircond compressor.

In contrary to what people thought, the summer in Qtar is very humid and may even reach 90%. Just walking leisurely (walking in the sun is not a leisure here)will make you perspire profusely, even at night. The humidity is due to most of Qtar being surrounded by water.

The em-basi here had the Agong Day's celebration last Friday, at night, outdoor. Everyone was sweating. I don't even dare wipe my sweat, fearing that it will leave blotches of powder on the face. I had to be dainty and pat it instead. Some babies were crying and the mum had to take of his shirt. Thank god it was not a windy day.

Did you hear about the Cyclone Gonu hitting the coastal Oman? Cyclones are actually rare around the Arab Peninsula. Though rare, cyclones like Gonu are not unheard of in the northern Indian Ocean basin. Most cyclones that form in the region form over the Bay of Bengal, east of India. Those that take shape over the Arabian Sea, west of the Indian peninsula, tend to be small and fizzle out before coming ashore. This, I read it, is the first after 45 years.

Late Tuesday, the cyclone packed a powerful 260km/ hour and wave of 12m high along with torrential rain (I think it is in Category five) advanced towards coastal Oman and along coastal UAE, Fujairah and so forth. Today it is threatening south eastern Iran and will continue to go up north with lesser intensity. Both Oman and Iran have evacuated thousands of people to a safer place. There usually is not much rain in these places during the summer, but now floods are everywhere and rain is forecasted to pour until Friday.

All these are affecting the important Hormuz Strait. One of the world's most important oil route. These obviously disrupt oil exports and the oil price spiked up.

The Cyclone is not forecasted to hit Qtar though. The only thing that affect Qtar (for now) is I think the weather is slightly cooler now. The normally cloudless sky has blotches of clouds, the wind is cooling (in relative, it is still hot) and the highest temperature was a mere 42C. Last night was coldest in these steaming summer. My nose is slightly itchy, I might get a cold. I can feel something in the air, sickly air. Batrisyia has been sniffing since Tuesday. All signs of changing temperature.

As much as I welcome the coolness, I feel for the people in Oman and Iran. So far no loss of life is recorded. I pray that there is minimal damage at all the affected places.

The world is experiencing weather havoc.