All Hail The New Year. Literally.
The first day of 2010 gave many Dubai residents the chance to experience something quite rare and strangely wonderful in the desert: a hail storm.
It was all the more weird for it not actually being very cold – we’d had a beautiful warm and sunny morning, and it was probably about 26 C when the black clouds came in, the thunder rumbled, the lightning flashed, and the hail came down. Bucket loads of the stuff!
Lovely image from the Gulf News story, taken by staff photographer, Arshad Ali. See http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/thunderstorms-hit-uae-on-friday-evening-1.560721
I was waiting to hear that Dubai’s brand-new Metro train had broken down in the face of ‘the wrong type of hail’ but all seemed to be working. The ‘Gulf News’ newspaper, however, ran a story that included the gem:
‘The day-time temperature [will drop] to 23 degrees Centigrade, and the minimum to between 17 and 18 degrees Centigrade. “If you are going out on Saturday wear a jacket,” advises the forecaster.’
Now that’s what I call a weather report. I’m yet to hear Francis on Sky News give me fashion advice – let alone tell viewers to wear a jacket because it’s 23 C.
As I remember, 23 C in England triggers the flashing of pasty bodies in shorts and sleeveless vests, and crowds of people lounging about in London’s parks half naked. Bless.
