Hello, summer!

It’s hot.  Hot, hot hot.

A tropical cyclone hit Oman just over a week ago, and we were told the knock-on effect here in Dubai would be higher temperatures for a few days. Well, the few days have been and gone; the humidity that followed the cyclone has thankfully passed my neck of the woods, but the high temperatures remain.

Yesterday, when I picked up the kids from school, it was 47 degrees. Just like that. When I stepped out of the car, my skin burned, not from the sun, but from the air temperature.

So, of course, all the weather rumours have started again. One that’s doing the rounds today is that it’s going to be 61˚C on Sunday. Hello, guys. 61˚C? I know Dubai likes to break world records, but that’s one I don’t think we’ll be getting this weekend.

Another report – which probably holds more truth – is that we’ll be experiencing ‘heat cyclones’, which start in the Empty Quarter (desert) and get pushed towards the UAE.

I don’t know what a heat cyclone is, but I drove through something yesterday that may well have been a small version. It was a funnel of sand, probably about one or two metres in diameter and the height of a three-storey house – from a distance, you could see it spiralling up from the ground like a whirling dervish. I see them occasionally on the bits of desert near Al Khail Road, but this one was right in my path.

I did what every self-respecting Housewife would do: drove straight through it. The impact rocked the car, any lingering dust was sand-blasted off the paintwork and the wipers – sensing ‘rain’ – came on: Vorsprung Durch Technik. Love it.

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