Ras Al Khaimah: Among residents belonging to more than a hundred nationalities that make up the resident population in the UAE, it’s quite natural to come across people with unique hobbies that reflect both the heritage and the contemporary goings on in the countries they come from.
For Mohammad Ali Saeed Al Rahbi, a 32 year-old government employee living in Ras Al Khaimah, nothing is as much fun as staying hot on the trail of severe weather systems across the country.
Al Rahbi reports his observations on the weather to people through social media channels. He has 85,900 followers on his Twitter account and 10,000 followers on Instagram.
Al Rahbi considers himself a weather chaser and has been observing the skies since his childhood.
In 2006, he bought instruments to help him predict the weather and has never looked back. From sandstorms to heavy shamal winds, Al Rahbi has watched all forms of weather roll into the UAE from every direction for the last eight years.
“In my childhood, I used to observe the conditions of the weather but I did not realise how it happened. Then when I grew up, I started to understand how the weather changes. I decided to devote all my efforts and time to chase weather everywhere inside and outside the country.”
Al Rahbi friends alert him whenever they come across a new or different technology or information about weather.
“I obtained my instruments through various ways whether I buy my own instruments, exchange with other weather chasers, from European websites as well as the National Centre of Meteorology and Seismology in UAE,” he says.
Al Rahbi says he has signed a memorandum with the National Centre of Meteorology and Seismology to help observe the weather.
“Weather chasing can be a very hard thing to do and, at times, I travel to other countries to follow weather conditions or rain and take pictures for them. On the trail of some storms, I did not sleep for several days to document developments,” he said
Al Rahbi says “weather chasing is chiefly a recreational endeavour, with people usually driven by the desire to photographs or take videos of the storm. Others are motivated by the chance to behold the beauty of views afforded by the sky and land, the mystery of not knowing precisely what will unfold and the thrill of heading to undetermined destinations on the open road.”
Many chasers also are storm spotters, reporting their observations of hazardous weather to relevant authorities.
“Your eyes are one of the best ways to help detect the weather. Always keep an eye at the sky and you’ll usually be on top of weather conditions,” Al Rahbi says.
Al Rahbi receives hundreds of enquiries related to the weather on a daily basis and he tries to provide answers to as many people as he can.
