The Regional Center for Dust and Sand Storms revealed that some regions of the Kingdom were affected by strong sandstorms on February 6, resulting from active northerly winds that accompanied an atmospheric depression, which led to the rise of dust in several areas and wind speeds exceeding 59 km/h.
The Executive Director of the Center, Jumaan bin Saad Al-Qahtani, explained that the data showed that the cities of Arar and Al-Qurayyat were affected by sandstorms that led to a decrease in the horizontal visibility to 800 meters, while Al-Ahsa witnessed a case of raised dust with a similar visibility range, and Riyadh and Dammam were also affected by raised dust that reduced the visibility to 3 kilometers.
The Regional Center for Dust and Sand Storms, which is supervised by the National Center of Meteorology, is one of the "Green Middle East" and "Green Saudi Arabia" initiatives announced by His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, with the aim of combating dust storms, reducing their environmental and health impacts, and promoting scientific research on extreme weather phenomena, in a way that contributes to achieving environmental sustainability regionally and globally.