Sand Storm

I know I have posted once before about sandstorms but we have never had one quite as intense as this one.  The wind was blowing 29 miles per hour.  That doesn't sound that bad compared to hurricanes but when you live in the desert, that is a ton of sand blowing around!!  This picture barely captures what it looks like.  Literally there could be high-rise buildings in the background that you can't even see because there is so much sand in the air.  It is so fine and blowing so hard that sand actually blew in under all our doors in the villa!  We had a pile of sand inside the doors and when I wiped down the kitchen table, within 5 minutes there was a layer of sand on it again - with all the windows and doors shut!  The pool in our compound had a layer of sand covering most of the bottom.  If you stepped outside, sand would blast you in the face and get in your eyes.  Life still carries on for the most part during these storms and all the workers who have to work outside wear masks to keep the sand out of their lungs.  The intense part of the storm lasted 1 1/2 days but it is still super windy and the visiblity is still very low even 5 days later.  Absolutely no playing outside for the kids and I sure feel really bad for anyone with asthma.  

Sand blowing across the road and sand in the air