Kuwait - Right Place & Right Time - Al-Sarrayat Sand Storm over Kuwait City
I was incredibly lucky today to be at the right place at the right time to capture this unbelievable dust and normal storm combined over the Kuwait City. Photo I always dreamt of taking but never really thought I would get it. Amazing moment when bright day has turned into dark night in 10 min in the early part of the day. It felt like end of the world is here.
Natural phenomena like this is part of season called Al-Sarrayat ( Local thunderstorms). It usually develops in the afternoon or during night and is occasionally accompanied with severe dust storms during which visibility may fall to zero. The resulted rain may be very heavy and usually occur during a few minutes. The south – easterly winds during this period become hot and humid . Air temperature is characterized by sudden changes and may drop to 10C within one minute. Temperatures from one day to another are changeable, particularly during the period 11th-30th April. Temperature may rise to the summer level for a few days then drop to a noticeable degree due to the influence of the north – westerly winds. Seabreeze is predominant during May, shifting the north-westerly winds of the morning to easterly in the afternoon, temperature mean ranges between 30C at the beginning of this period and 40 C at the end. Thunderstorms are likely to occur during the intervals : 8 th – 12th , 16th, 22nd, 26th, April and 7th – 10th May.
The day has started as a one of those regular photographers days - Another day & another wake call at 4AM, took some great shots at sunrise & and was going home happy with the result, however bigger surprise was waiting for me when I got home, huge storm and sand storm combined was just "eating" Kuwait City. I have never seen this before when bright day turns into night and all that in 10 min !! I was extremely lucky to go to the roof of my building just before it hit us to capture that incredible dusty cloud covering the city !!
Note that those few photos I was able to capture were done during 5 minutes only !! If I came just few minutes late, I would see just big darkness and soon after lot of rain ! Now I wish I came at least 5 min earlier to capture that view we saw from highway, however a person should not be too greedy and therefore I'm tremendously happy with few of these unusual shots !!
Just to remind you, this is how the same view looks under different conditions :
www.flickr.com/photos/-lucie-/4052587724/in/set-721576038...
Model: Canon EOS 5D Mark II; Lens’s focal length: 24.00 - 105.00 mm Focal length: 35.00 mm; Aperture: 5.6, Exposure time: 1/80 s, ISO: 160
All rights reserved - Copyright © Lucie Debelkova
All images are exclusive property and may not be copied, downloaded, reproduced, transmitted, manipulated or used in any way without expressed, written permission of the photographer.
Comments and faves
Jarle Grindhaug, Arindam@Sen, seyed mostafa zamani, nishank reddy, and 255 other people added this photo to their favorites.
© Lucie Debelkova / www.luciedebelkova.com (26 months ago | reply)
© Lucie Debelkova / www.luciedebelkova.com (26 months ago | reply)
Mimmo Photo (26 months ago | reply)
Wonderful my friend
Bravaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
COSKUNTUNA ... 800.000 ... THANK YOU_ (26 months ago | reply)
Wonderful.
Have a süper weekend my friend.
Alejandro Pérez Rizo (26 months ago | reply)
Woah
fbako (26 months ago | reply)
Magnificent!
nishank reddy (26 months ago | reply)
i bet this pic is fp explored
Nick Chill Photography (26 months ago | reply)
Incredible shot! Congratulations.
__
Seen on my Flickr home page. (?)
mrs. snap_shot27 (26 months ago | reply)
you are indeed lucky. amazing shot!
itslour (26 months ago | reply)
wow! Impressive!
Abdullah Al-Qadeeri (26 months ago | reply)
OMG!
pDOTeter (26 months ago | reply)
Indeed perfect timing, but timing is everything. You secured the shot like a pro! Congrats
--
Seen on google.be ( ?² )
Solarstones (26 months ago | reply)
Awesome shot
heja1 (26 months ago | reply)
Nice work.
hj
adlin (26 months ago | reply)
fantastic
Cycling the world (26 months ago | reply)
That is just amazing. Well done for capturing the moment so well.
h.delic (26 months ago | reply)
Great unique shot. I guess you don't need an erupting volcano to capture scenes like this in Kuwait.
Señor Ge (26 months ago | reply)
Sencillamente fantástica.
marlesghillie (26 months ago | reply)
This is an awesome shot... the power of nature dwarfing the impudence of Man. Fantastically captured here.
Ruedi of Switzerland (26 months ago | reply)
Congratulations !
Kuwait73 (26 months ago | reply)
Wwaaaww
Metin Canbalaban (26 months ago | reply)
Very beautiful shot my friend.
I wish you a wonderful weekend.:))
claudiodelfuoco (26 months ago | reply)
Congratulations Lucie, you're a master!
Chee Seong (26 months ago | reply)
LOVE those heavy clouds... great framing.
AL-SHAIJY (26 months ago | reply)
woooooow
FirasR (26 months ago | reply)
Great timing, and even better photography. Well done!
noompty (26 months ago | reply)
I've been in a couple of dust storms, and they look impressive until they arrive then they're a pain in the bum. Glad to see you were able to capture this one. The buildings give this a sense of scale.
HANI BADER (26 months ago | reply)
Amazing
Marco Lecchi (26 months ago | reply)
I pick this photograph to be on the cover of National Geographic
National Geographic: Are You Good Enough?
RkRao (26 months ago | reply)
Congratulations
cyrographics (26 months ago | reply)
Definitely an awesome shot..its like having a front row seat!
Dirk Delbaere (26 months ago | reply)
great composition
Diego Velo (26 months ago | reply)
Amazing shot!! Congratulations.
Orkun Mungan [deleted] (26 months ago | reply)
impressive.
Ala naši (26 months ago | reply)
woooooow :)
Sadeq Nader Abul (26 months ago | reply)
Lucky You!! ;)
perfect shot!
LightSpectral | Ismanah photography (26 months ago | reply)
Absolutely breathtaking!
sztyui (26 months ago | reply)
Beautiful!
©Helminadia Ranford (26 months ago | reply)
wow.... thats too cool !!!
T.ALRoumi (26 months ago | reply)
what amazing pic luci
ibrahem N. ALNassar (26 months ago | reply)
Nice shot!
Filan (26 months ago | reply)
Extremely wonderful photography, just perfect.
NL@TPE (26 months ago | reply)
amazing!!
noelsumalague (26 months ago | reply)
Whooooaaaah!!!!!!
Nice Lucie.
Lucie! Lucie! Lucie! Lucie!
Guilleflash (26 months ago | reply)
Really amazing shot!!!! Congratulations!!!!
PhotographyBoy (26 months ago | reply)
Stunning - beautiful shot, very well done!
--
Seen in my contacts' photos. (?)
*dans (26 months ago | reply)
spectacular scene!
like the movie scenery in "The Mummy"...
thank you for sharing.
hope don't need to spend lots of time to clean your lens.
© Saleh AlRashaid / www.Salehphotography.net (26 months ago | reply)
Superb!!
Alaina Dall (26 months ago | reply)
Amazing image! Great timing! Congratulations!
m7han (26 months ago | reply)
wow amazing!!