Fog, fog, fog...

 

Whilst Facebook is reporting snow in the South East of England, here too in Dubai the season are changing with Summer being offically over when a thick fog starts to sweep across Dubai each morning from mid October, burning itself out by 9am.

It was rather a shock to Ian and I as we had not heard anything about fog here.  "What do you think it is?" Ian asked whilst opening the blinds in our bedroom to a wall of white on the first morning of the fog.  We literally could not see the skyscrapers next to us, the fog having an odd off white verging on yellow quality to it, billowing around the side of the building.  

 

The fog as it clears

In all honesty, and with more than a tad stupidity on my part, my response was "Sand Storm".  We had heard about these being fierce, but when I woke up a little more and realised that it was more remiscent of smoke than sand, but still being none the wiser, conversation changed to the ongoing tensions in Iran and, referring to the threat of attack on all American bases in the area, the drama queen in me asking "Surely we would have heard/felt any airstrikes on the naval base?!?!"  The look of shock at such a stupid comment from Ian was priceless untill he started to laugh at me...

The effect of the fog is dramatic, you can feel the drop in temperature daily.  When we first arrived in Dubai, the temperatures were around 48 degrees decreasing so very slightly to 45 degrees at the begining of October.  However, the temperature has dropped down to a comfortable (yes, you are hearing me right) 35 degrees during the day, 33 degrees at night.

Visabilty can be very poor (about 100 meters on the SZR) at the begining of the season and car crashes are inevitable.  Pile ups are a daily occurence; the worst being a 32 car pile on the Dubai By-pass with 16 people injured.  This and ongoing crashes had caused reports that Dubai Police are urging drivers to use their fog lights; and not their full beams or hazards which are often seen on the roads in fog.

The fog also caused Dubai International Airport to close for the morning resulting in huge delays and even causing some planes to reroute their planned destination.

I would definately bear this in mind if travelling here at this time of year.