Watch the video: Winds of 110 km/h put Kuwait under a historic sandstorm that obscured roads and trapped vehicles (June 2021)

During the period between June 10 and 12, 2021, the State of Kuwait witnessed a severe sandstorm wave, which caused a significant deterioration in horizontal visibility, amid widespread effects on roads, vehicles and a number of landmarks, as a result of large quantities of dust being pushed by active northwesterly winds, where wind gusts were recorded reaching about 110 km/h in some areas.

During the peak of the situation, the atmosphere turned into a visually almost closed scene, with a sharp decrease in visibility, and the effects of the storm extended to various aspects of daily life and movement in the country.

Weather details

The storm began as a result of strong activity of dry northwesterly winds (Al-Bawarih winds), which contributed to stirring up large amounts of dust from southern Iraq along the Tigris and Euphrates basin, before the dust mass moved rapidly towards Kuwait during June 10 and 11, 2021.

As the dry winds continued, the dust clouds expanded to cover large parts of the northern Arabian Gulf, as shown by satellite images that monitored the storm's spread over a wide regional area.

Direct effects on Kuwait

The storm led to:

• A sharp decrease in horizontal visibility
• Wind gusts reached approximately 110 km/h
• Extreme difficulty in traffic flow on the roads
• Covering parts of the roads with accumulated dust
• Some vehicles and local landmarks were affected in several areas.

Sky view during peak

At the height of the storm, the sky turned a brownish-gray color, with a significant decrease in visibility, in a scene described by residents as being more like “daylight gradually disappearing under dust,” as a result of the density of particles suspended in the atmosphere.

Weather analysis

Weather experts attribute the strength of this wave to a combination of factors, most notably:

• Strong northwesterly winds
• Widespread drought in southern Iraq
• Differences in atmospheric pressure helped to speed up the winds.
• Easy dust movement across the northern Gulf

Regional extent of the storm

Satellite data showed the storm extended to include Iraq, Kuwait and the northern Gulf, reflecting the strength of the weather system that caused the lifting and transporting of huge amounts of dust in a short period of time.

a summary

The June 2021 storm is one of the most prominent dust storms that affected Kuwait, not only because of the density of the dust, but also because of the wind speed that reached about 110 km/h, and the accompanying significant deterioration in visibility and widespread effects on daily life.