Saudi flood
Winter rainstorms and flooding occur almost every year in Jeddah. Image Credit: Twitter@HashKSA

Dubai: The Saudi National Center of Meteorology (NCM) has predicted that the Kingdom will continue to experience rain until next Tuesday.

“The rainy weather will be accompanied by torrents, hail, active wind, dust, reduced visibility, and rising waves on the coastal cities,” Hussein Al Qahtani, the Center’s spokesperson, said.

Al Qahtani added that rain alerts have been issued in many cities, including Jeddah, Rabigh and Taif. Rain is also expected in Riyadh, Al Qassim and Al Baha.

However, rain will be moderate in the Eastern region and thunderclouds might form in parts of the Jazan and Najran regions.

Over the past few days, Saudi Arabia witnessed heavy rain and snowfall, causing some flights at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah to be delayed.

The airport asked travellers to get in touch with airlines to receive the new flight departure times.

The crisis and disaster management centre at Mecca urged residents not to leave their homes during NCM’s warning unless necessary.

Earlier last week, severe flash floods hit Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Mecca, causing serious damages to properties and sweeping parked cars away.

Several videos of the heavy rains have gone viral on social media, showing cars being washed away in the city.

Flooded streets caused havoc. Police as well as civil defence were called to rescue drivers and remove stranded vehicles. However, no deaths have been reported so far.