Unusual Weather...

[clivehorridge]

I've been here to Qatar a few times at different times of the year.

When I lived here for 18 months in 2004-2006, those that knew the place well reconned it only rained once a year, at the end of January or beginning of February, and then it would be no more than for 4 days.

That "winter" at the end of January 2005, it rained for 8 days straight, with the inevitable floods because the drains were designed to absorb only 4 days of rain.

Lately, it seems to rain more often and at various times throughout the year.

It rained today, so I took some photo-shots out of the hotel window...

Not a very usual sight here if you look closer...

One of the signs of global weather changes?

 

[StarCruiser]

Well, if some of the Youtoob vids are to be believed, we've got a mini ice age on the way. Me, well, I'll believe it when I see it, but I remain open minded. I know they are saying record snowfall in some areas so that would probably equal rain where you are Clive.

 

[Shayne]

What goes up must come down and it will land where the wind blows it I reckon . I bet the people there react to rain with joy , wouldn't that be something to see in the U.K.

 

[StarCruiser]

What goes up must come down and it will land where the wind blows it I reckon . I bet the people there react to rain with joy , wouldn't that be something to see in the U.K.

A bit like how children or 4x4 owners react to snow round here you mean.

 

[chapel gate]

Its all to do with sun spots and magnetic reversals. Noticed the increase in volcanic activity lately? ....

 

[StarCruiser]

Its all to do with sun spots and magnetic reversals. Noticed the increase in volcanic activity lately? ....

A solar minimum I believe, or so I've heard/watched on Youtoob.

 

[clivehorridge]

A solar minimum I believe, or so I've heard/watched on Youtoob.

And then this happened...

 

[Gary820]

Looks like york at times lol.

 

[StarCruiser]

What the heck is it? I mean, at first glance it looks like snow then foam, so not quite sure really. Hail?

 

[clivehorridge]

It was a local hail storm mixed with foam from the flooded road.

It only affected a very local area of the town, maybe 1/2 km radius.

Very weird.

 

[Mojo]

[QUOTE="
One of the signs of global weather changes?[/QUOTE]

There has to be something said about shoddy urban planning and surface run-off along with civil engineers designing temporary car parks as hippo wading ponds. Either that or invest in some waders, but don't blame the weather!

 

[clivehorridge]

[QUOTE="
One of the signs of global weather changes?

There has to be something said about shoddy urban planning and surface run-off along with civil engineers designing temporary car parks as hippo wading ponds. Either that or invest in some waders, but don't blame the weather![/QUOTE]

Not blaming anyone Mojo, it's just an observation.

A country goes for centuries with a fairly steady "average" weather pattern, then over the last 10 years it changes.

As for the car parks, nobody has designed them, they're building plots waiting to start and folks just use them to park on.

The urban planning is reasonably well managed in Doha, except that the drainage needs upgrading to match the future weather predictions, which as I understand it is at least 3 times the previous estimates and is under way.

 

[MarkW]

and we have the same drainage design issues in the UK Clive, currently the requirement is a 1:100 year storm +20 for climate change. Still not perfect and we still get new finished projects flooding.

And that's not even looking at our perverse habit of building new houses in flood plains.

 

[chapel gate]

And our perverse habit of building on greenbelt...

 

[clivehorridge]

Ye

and we have the same drainage design issues in the UK Clive, currently the requirement is a 1:100 year storm +20 for climate change. Still not perfect and we still get new finished projects flooding.

And that's not even looking at our perverse habit of building new houses in flood plains.

Yep, with you both on the green belt & flood plains developments

Qatar's problem is because of their historic ultra-low rainfall, the street storm drains run to simple soakaways. They've worked well for the last 10-15 years, but now they simply overflow.

The country is flat so running them into existing watercourses isn't really an option.

There's no other way but to pipe storm water to an out of town reservoir, so they're considering building a nature reserve type water-park now.