Pictures from Kuwait’s Thunderstorm 2013
I read in today’s newspapers that Monday’s storm was perhaps one of the worst in the history of Kuwait, with up to 93mm of rain water accumulated in the two hours it poured down! We’ve been waiting for the thunderstorm of the year in Kuwait which was supposed to arrive on Sunday which was uneventful and passed by without a droplet of rain but by Monday afternoon serious black clouds began edging their way towards Kuwait City. This is the view from Shuwaikh area of the clouds gathering around a couple of hours before the downpour.
By around 2:15 P.M. it was quite dark outside and this is how dark the clouds were!
Then it began pouring mercilessly! It was monsoon-like as I’ve seen in the movies.
I tried to drive home but the streets were flooded with water! I was wading through what looked like rivers of water and was worried that the water would ruin my car’s electricity. Would it? Perhaps yes, since you don’t really see people driving their cars inside the sea or rivers now do you?
Then of course the traffic was horrible. I was stuck with all these cars in first ring road for about half an hour to reach my exit, which usually takes about five minutes on normal days.
Then everything turned into a big jungle, with cars by passing you, driving like mad into the emergency lane, cutting you off so they can get ahead and with so many cars doing that I began to lose my patience. You’d think in such a crisis people would be orderly or at least attempt to drive slowly!
On another note, I had the pleasure of meeting a big fat brown Norwegian rat walking down first ring road as I waited to exit. Exiting the 50 metres from first ring road to road 40 took me, literally, 45 minutes. The total journey home took 1 and a half hours and by the time I made it there after sunset all I wanted was to crash on my bed and sleep until the next morning. So much for enjoying my Tuesday off!
Never before have I seen white clouds so visible at night!
The rain and thunder continued to pour all night long and sporadically for the the next day. I tried to take photographs of the thunder but for the third year in a row I’ve failed, miserably. A before and after shot is the best I’ve gotten though 
And that concludes my memory of the Thunderstorm of 2013, supposedly the worst Thunderstorm to hit Kuwait so far according to newspapers. I hope everyone is safe and aside from being a little wet, bored, and stuck in traffic, you didn’t suffer much.
