I was scrolling endlessly through Facebook this weekend when I stumbled upon a post by Howard, Dubai’s unofficial weather guru. There was a tropical storm brewing in the Indian Ocean. This of course piqued my interest. I haven’t seen any kind of decent weather for a couple of years now. However, by the time I saw the posts, it had weakened to a tropical depression again.

Goodbye, TS Gulab.

I went to sleep reminiscing on all the beautiful storms I had experienced in Bermuda, made especially vivid by the recent photography of the changes Hurricane Sam’s close brush with the island made. Yes, looking back it was a little scary and my anxiety went through the roof every time, but it really was an incredible sight to see.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered this morning that the little TD has now strengthened again to a TS!

Hello, TS Shaheen!

Not only that, but it is strengthening further as it moves over the incredibly warm waters of the Indian ocean towards us. They are predicting a category one cyclone will hit the costal areas of Oman with the eye well-formed already.

My inner weather geek is absolutely on high alert!

Dubai won’t be seeing the eye looking at the projected tracking, but we are in for a bit of weather to be happening. This morning, for example, there was a complete cover of those cotton wool ball looking clouds – cumulus clouds. These are some of my favourites!

Sadly, I had binge watched the last season of Lucifer last night, so I looked at the clouds, thought “oohhh, pretty” and went back to sleep. By the time I wok again, it was back to nothing. Ugh. Stupid TV shows!

All is not lost though. I know that this will be the pattern going forward as the outer layer of the storm approaches. I will have one eye on my computer and the other out of the window so I can watch for the next change.

Now, I am fully aware that storms are dangerous and with the wadis and the towns flooding, this is a hugely stressful time for some.  I do not take away from that for a moment. 

Add on to that there are some people who are terrified of thunder and lightning. I can’t imagine what it must feel like if they know this is approaching. It can be very scary for people.

I don’t think I have been afraid of storms, ever. Well, maybe a bit of the ’87 storm in the UK but only because there was a downed tree outside my window and the branches kept tapping on the glass. My sister and I were found huddled together in bed the next day. My parents had slept through the lot!

Anyway, I am going to be glued to a window for the majority of the day. I will be looking out for the sunset tonight and sunrise tomorrow as they are bound to be spectacular with all the different cloud layers and speeds of wind.

But for now, it’s time for me to head to the office!

UPDATE: Oman got hit hard with the storm, taking 150mm of rainfall at lunchtime yesterday. I don’t know what the final tally was but there is widespread flooding.

However, the cool mountain air broke the cyclone up and so it’s now just patches of rain. Also, the path went south west, so it is due to completely miss Dubai.

We at least had pretty clouds for a while. Not around sunset/sunrise, but still. There were clouds.