Thunderstorm in the desert

As my Facebook status today I posted “Thunderstorm in the Desert” and immediately was asked if I meant it figuratively? Yes, Isa, you get mentionned ;-)!   Although the atmosphere has been tense in the Middle East and this past weekend in Saudi Arabia, I really meant we were having a thunderstorm, with thunder, rain, lightning and the whole shebang!  The weather these past few days has been weird…  Thursday night we had a full blown sandstorm, with sands seeping all over the house and making it difficult to breath, followed with about enough raindrops to totally wreck the layer of sand on your car.  Friday (our Sunday) I took the kids to the pool and the sky was so overcast the sun could not peak through.  Perfect temperature and no sun meant it was not too hot, but no sunbathing.  Friday night we had a major hailstorm that must have lasted over 10-15 minutes and dropped hail about the size of small marbles.  Yesterday Monday, back at work, it was so hot and humid we turned on the AC in all the buildings and finished the afternoon with dark skies.  And today, we started with some grey sky and had intermittent showers throughout the day.  This evening, it’s raining again, rather steadily, making the streets of the compound wet and flooding our poorly irrigated yards.  Oh well, guess I’ll have to take my umbrella tomorrow…  and YES, I am still in the middle of the Arabian desert!