Massive unseasonal sandstorm sweeps across Middle East

[link to www.usatoday.com]

Massive sandstorm blankets Middle East for a second day

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The sandstorm has affected Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria, where at least five deaths have been reported. The storm has also disrupted fighting and airstrikes in Syria, which is torn by civil war, according to news accounts.

“There has been nothing that came close to the magnitude of this sandstorm,” said Daniel Rosenfeld , a professor with the Earth Sciences Institute at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

While Israel has experienced a number of sand storms in the past, they originated from the Sinai and Sahara desert to the south and were accompanied by winter windstorms that cleared the air, he said. In this case, the storm comes from Syria and Iraq to the north and east.

Because the storm is hitting during the summer, at a time of both little wind and severe heat and humidity, forecasters expect the particles to remain in the air throughout the weekend and potentially into next week.

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