NCM issues duststorm warning for Tuesday

The UAE's National Centre of  Meteorology (NCM) has issued a duststorm warning for Monday. It said that a duststorm is likely to affect the western part of UAE tomorrow.

A massive sandstorm blanketed the Rafha governorate in Saudi Arabia on Monday morning. Weather experts said that the storm is expected to reach the governorates of Riyadh, the North, and the Eastern Province in the coming hours.

The dust storm formed in the Iraqi desert, and entered the State of Kuwait and northern Saudi Arabia.

The storm will affect the governorates of the central region and the eastern region, and will reduce visibility.

Iraq closed public buildings and temporarily shut airports Monday as another sandstorm - the ninth since mid-April - hit the country.

More than 1,000 people were hospitalised across the nation with respiratory problems, health ministry spokesman Seif Al Badr said.

Flights were also grounded in neighbouring Kuwait for a second time this month, as the region grapples with the increasingly frequent weather phenomenon.

The Iraqi capital Baghdad was enveloped in a giant dust cloud that left usually traffic-choked streets largely deserted and bathed in an eery orange light, eyewitnesses said.

Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhemi ordered all work to cease in state-run institutions, except for health and security services, citing "poor climatic conditions and the arrival of violent sandstorms."

Agencies