Sandy Spring

The "skyline" of Bahrain. These pictures were all taken in the middle of the day.
The ocean view. It is the current trend on the island to reclaim land from the sea. A few years back, the building from where I took this picture did not exist. The area was underwater. Developers are now reclaiming land from the sea by pumping in sand. These areas are becoming the new home of skyscrapers, luxury hotels, and business towers. As you can see from the picture, they are creating "islands" that will be the financial center in Bahrain. The increasing frequency of dust storms is due in part to this kind of construction work.
Creating new islands on the north end of the Bahrain.

This year has been marked by some unusual weather. We had one of the coldest winters in history with temperatures dropping down to 6* Celsius, and now our spring is bringing more sand storms than ever. Since most of you have probably never experienced a sand storm, I will try to paint some pictures (and show you some real pictures) so you can get a feel for it.

When you wake up in the morning, the sky is a whitish gray, like you would see during the long Midwest winters. :)

Visibility is almost nothing. It seems like a really foggy morning, but the fog persists all day.

People walk around withe their mouths and noses covered so they don't inhale so much dust.

By the end of the day, everything is covered with a fine layer of brown. Due to the construction of most buildings here, the dust also gets inside. Air conditioners are a big culprit as the wall units allow dust from the outside free passage inside. It is almost impossible to stay on top of dusting in this country. I sweep the floor of my bedroom, and I'm not just sweeping up dust, I'm sweeping up a layer of sand/dirt that you would expect to find outside.