We’ve been here for almost 18 months now & I’ve only seen a couple of very short sprinkles of rain. Today the clouds built up ominously and we were looking forward to our first “proper” rain.

The rain certainly came, and it was fun at first, but this city is built in the desert and drainage and water-proofing are not high on the priority list. We were enjoing watching the rain from our balcony until we noticed large puddles collecting on the floor of our office & bedroom. The rain was coming in not through the windows but around the outside of the window frames!

Much mopping later the only real casualties were a couple of books that will never be the same again. In comparison to many others we got off rather light. The city was in total gridlock, all schools were closed, the roads everywhere were flooded.

This article in Doha News has some excellent photos and videos -make sure you scroll down to see the comments for some videos others have shared. http://dohanews.co/heavy-downpours-in-qatar-lead-to-flooded-roads-school-closures/

Heavy clouds

More clouds

Serious clouds!

Our watery view

View? What view?

View? What view?

Rain running down the walls of the office. 16th floor of a 19 storey building.

Wet wall & curtains

Google map of Doha showing traffic in red. Very glad I got to stay home!

Half a bucket from the office floor alone.

The beach washed away into the bay!

Here are some photos I downloaded from various sources on Facebook. I was supposed to go out but my meeting was cancelled, thankfully. I am very glad I didn’t have to go anywhere today!