Dusty conditions to abate, but temperatures will increase

Abu Dhabi: Dusty conditions across the country over the past seven days will start to abate from on Sunday, improving visibility, said weathermen.

"But it will be hazy and the temperature will increase gradually," said a spokesperson at Meteorological Department at National Centre of Meteorology and Seismology in Abu Dhabi.

The visibility will improve to 4,000 to 5,000 metres on Sunday from the poor visibility of an average 2,500 metres on Saturday. But the temperatures will gradually increase in the coming days.

It may be on average 41 to 42 degree Celsius on Sunday. But some western parts of the country may witness temperatures up to 47C on Sunday.

Reasons

The spokesperson said strong north-westerly winds from north-eastern parts of Saudi Arabia and Iraq carried large amounts of dust and caused the drop in visibility during the past week over adjacent areas of Arabian Gulf, especially in the western parts.

The dust rose to the middle layer of the atmosphere and moved towards south-eastern parts of the Arabian Gulf, and reached the UAE.

Weakening wind speed at the atmospheric layer close to the surface caused the dust to descend from the upper to lower layers, which caused a drop in visibility up to 800 metres in some parts of the country.

Satellite pictures taken on Saturday suggest that weather conditions in Iraq and northern Arabian Gulf have started improving and this will help improve the visibility from this afternoon in the UAE.