Bahrain witnessed very strong North Westerly winds on Thursday afternoon, triggering a sandstorm, which  engulfed the entire kingdom, affecting daily life and creating difficulties for motorists.

The maximum wind speed recorded at Bahrain International Airport was 32 knots and gust reached 38 knots, reported Bahrain News Agency (BNA).

The strong North Westerly wind is expected to continue blowing over the kingdom throughout the weekend, stated the report citing Khalid Yaseen, Head Weather Forecasting, A/Chief, Meteorological Operations and Observations.

“This will lead the temperature to decrease to around 12 degrees Celsius,” he told BNA.

Wind speed will decrease temporarily by early next week, but it will strengthen again by mid of next week, he added.

Yaseen said that this afternoon a wide area of thick dust generated over northern parts of Arabian Peninsula due to high wind speed and it has moved towards Kingdom along with the North Westerly winds causing the visibility to deteriorate to less than 500 m.

The dust is expected to thin out today and the visibility will improve gradually, he added.