Weather

It’s the dust storm season now and instead of having the desert outside we now have it inside as well. The dust from the desert, and all the construction going on, is as fine as talc and finds its way everywhere. The nature of buildings here is that they are not especially well built and have many gaps, particularly around windows and doors, and that dust seems to find its way in. When a dust storm is in full swing you can hardly see more than 40-50 metres maximum. i.e. just being able to make a shape of a building out. Clarity ( if you can call it that ) is down to about 10 - 15 metres. On these occasions the wind is fair howling so the dust is coming at you more or less horizontally and can really sting. You also have to be mindful of not being hit by any airborne objects due to the unfortunate habit of people just dropping their rubbish wherever they happen to be. I saw a guys hard hat fly off and end up bouncing at least 100m down the road.

It is just starting to warm up a little after the last couple of months where it has been quite cool, ranging from around 6 – 10 degrees at night to the early 20’s during the day. Maybe because of this gradual warming we are also seeing a lot of heavy fog in the mornings. Makes for an interesting drive to work, more so for for Lynne, who, because she is going to many schools, and some in new locations, can get lost all too easily. It is very easy in thick fog to lose your bearings once you get away from any recognizable landmarks.