Extra, Extra, Read All About It - Rain! - 23 February 2006

Feb 24, 2006 9:47 AM

Extra, Extra, Read All About It - Rain!

23 February 2006

It started yesterday with a litle sandstorm and then a little rain

followed by more and more and more rain.  For me it happened this way:

My friend Bonnie and I went to Dubai for her doctor's appointment and

then we were going to go shopping in one or more interesting places.

Unfortunately, a small sand storm was kicking up in Al Ain and dark

clouds were moving in from the direction of Dubai as we headed out.

Before we got out of town, sand was blowing harder and then about

halfway to Dubai it began to rain!!!  That kept up more or less the

entire time we were there and then slacked off a bit.  By the time we

hit the freeway heading back to Al Ain, rain really began to pour down

and followed us most of the way back to Al Ain and it's been raining

ever since, at least two hours.  It's pretty chilly outside, too.

Yuck!  I am just very grateful that this happens rarely.

One very interesting and unusual thing we saw just after we got to Al

Ain: hundreds and hundreds of cars parked on the desert sand just on

the outskirts of town.  Bonnie she's never seen anything like it in

her four years here.  It was like people parking for a Carolina

football game but there was nothing for them to see and nothing going

on.  Finally we concluded that they had all come out to see the

rain!!!  I'll ask at work on Saturday though, just to see if anything

big was happening (other than the rain, of course).  Then, as Bonnie

drove into my apartment compound, we saw six children standing beside

the driveway just outside the gate, holding out their hands and

reaching up so the rain could fall into them.  They were smiling and

having a great time.  Ah, the simple joys of life in the Arabian

Desert.

24 February 2006

Today I talked to someone who had driven past all those cars about two

hours after Bonnie and I went past.  By then, the sand was really wet

and all those cars - 4-wheel drives, mostly - were spinning and

turning and zipping around on the wet sand; people were just out

celebrating the rainfall!

Well, the rain and sandstorm on Thursday were only the beginning.  I

woke up this morning to the sound of rain pouring onto the street

outside my bedroom balcony.  It has continued to pour since then!

Bonnie and I went to Abu Dhabi for our church today and it rained most

of the way there, most of the time we were there, all the way back,

and it's now after 6:00 PM and still raining.  Bonnie stopped at the

wadi near my building on the way back and lo-and-behold, there was

water in the wadi!  It's especially deep where the road has been cut

across the wadi.  The water was about a foot deep there.  I got some

great photos that I will try attaching. This kind of rain is extremely

unusual.  Bonnie says she has seen nothing like it in the four years

she's been here.

This wet news was too good to wait to share, so consider this a

Special Edition of the Newsletter.

The photos: One of the water where the road cuts through the wadi,

showing the water is up past the red warning posts, and one from that

point looking east toward where my flat is - somewhere on the left but

not shown.