Residents can enjoy pleasant weekend as winds expected to ease

Dubai: The blanket of dust haze will lift on Friday partially, improving visibility to 5,000 meters as the winds drop, but offshore it will still be rough, according to the Dubai meteorological office.

The dust haze had reduced visibility to about 1,500 meters across the emirates on Thursday, and around the Middle East, Baghdad was badly hit because of the very strong north-westerly winds lifting up the dust, according to Dr. S.K. Gupta, duty forecaster.

While the winds across the Emirates will be light, offshore it will be about 70 kmp/h maximum. "The waves will be 10 to 12 foot high, not good for sailing or fishing," said the forecaster. He said the winds at offshore Qatar will be even worse at 78km/h. Only on Sunday the winds are expected to die down offshore as the winds change direction.

Dubai recorded a temperature of 20.6 degrees Celsius on Thursday and the maximum is not expected to go beyond 21 degrees over the weekend. When the winds start getting blustery again inland on Sunday, night time temperature will go down to 13 to 14 degrees Celsius.