Wind and Dust II

Sunday 4 March
1900

Last week we got a warning that a Shamal Duststorm was imminent. The flyer they sent out had a dramatic picture of what one looks like:


070304 Wind and Dust II
Originally uploaded by hkp7fan.
In the event, it wasn’t as dramatic as the one in the picture, although there was plenty of dust.

It was predicted for Thursday afternoon. We were working outside that day, bringing a large air conditioning unit back online after it had been out of service for many months. When I say “large”, I mean garage-sized. This thing was meant to cool the entire warehouse by itself, and having it running will make a big difference when the weather gets hot again. A lot of people had been working on different aspects of getting it running and this was the day we were going to turn it on and see if it worked.

Ironically, we had already warned people that starting it up would probably blow the dust which had accumulated in the ducts out of the vents into their areas, so people had their areas protected from dust with trash bags over computers, food put away, etc. The last step before turning it on was to clean the filters out. It has thirty filters in it, arranged in banks of five, each about two feet square. These are not fiberglass-and-cardboard filters like in a home unit, but layered metal mesh in metal frames, about two inches thick.

We took them all out and blew the dirt out with compressed air. That created a mini-duststorm of our own, but it had to be done. The wind was already blowing at this time, so it actually helped us by blowing the dust away. Later we will have to take the filters back out and wash them, but this was good enough for the initial test. There were literally several pounds of dirt in each one – they were *much* lighter when we put them back in. All of these systems need a thorough cleaning, which we will do soon (there’s one in each building). But for now I just wanted to get this one back online and make sure everything on it was working properly.

We turned it on and got it running, and everything seemed to be fine. It needed some refrigerant, so the HVAC techs worked on that, balancing the suction pressure across the compressors and making sure there were no leaks and that all the electronic relays were working correctly. The fire alarm went off, as I expected, since there are detectors in the ductwork and the dust sets them off. I had the Fire Department alarm techs on hand to deal with that.

Meanwhile it was getting windier and windier. We had a forecast of rain, and it spat a few drops but never really came down. The sky looked pretty forbidding, but there was never really a defined “front” of dust that came though like in the picture. Or else if there was, I was inside and missed it. There was just a lot of dust blowing around in the air. I wondered if maybe the rain had taken the edge off the duststorm.

Friday was worse – it was really blowing hard. The wind was blowing very strongly, and there were regular gusts. The sky had a brown overcast to it, and distant objects were obscured. The major landmark here is the water tower, which is only about ¼ mile away. While you could see the outline of it, it was very obscured. The other major landmark is a radio tower, which was completely invisible except for the strobe light on top for warning aircraft away.

People walked around with scarves or face masks on all day. We looked like a bunch of outlaws from the old west, or else Ninja warriors. You can really see the utility of the Arab clothing when you see this kind of weather. I never put on my neck gaiter, although I carried it around in my pocket. I didn’t have to be outside all that much and it was more trouble that I thought it was worth. I did wear my wraparound sunglasses all the time, though.

The windborne dust was just suspended in the air, almost like something dissolved in water – it was just part of it. I could feel the grit in my mouth on my teeth, and it did give me a persistent cough. So maybe I should have been wearing a scarf or bandana after all. Next time I will.

An interesting thing I observed was the patterns of wind-driven dust along the ground. It looked exactly like dry snow blowing around in the winter wind at home, except for the color. It made the same patterns blowing across the pavement, and the same kinds of built-up drifts against and around every object, drifting through cracks, etc. It was kind of cool, The problem is that this stuff doesn’t melt – it just gets into everything. Keeping it out of machinery is a constant battle.

By Saturday it had passed by, and the weather was clear and bright again.

This climate sure is hard on painted surfaces. Cars are always dirty, and when you go downtown there are men waiting in every parking area asking to wash your car. They motion you into parking spaces as though they own the place, and then ask if they can wash your car. Here’s a photo of a parking lot in downtown Fahaheel that I took the last time we went down there to pick up some things:


070201 Fahaheel (Blog)
Originally uploaded by hkp7fan.
During the winter there was some humidity, but over the past couple of weeks it has dried up, and now my eyes, nose and throat are dry all the time. I drink tons of water and use saline eye drops and nasal spray to mitigate the dryness. You lose a lot of moisture just breathing.

I keep a couple of water bottles with towels stuffed into them for wicks as humidifiers in my room, right in front of the AC duct. They evaporate at the rate of about a liter a day. I don’t know if it actually helps much, but it makes me feel like I’m at least doing something. I drink a lot more water now than I was a month ago, and I’m sure I’ll be increasing my intake as it gets hot.

I’ll be glad when the AC repair and maintenance contract I put in place actually gets started. It will be just in time – that was a huge headache last fall when I got here, and I sure will be happy to have them working more reliably when it gets hot again this time around.

Nothing much more in the way of news. Things go on as usual – trying to keep enough ahead of the little daily problems and short-notice requirements to make progress on longer-range goals. And succeeding. J

Mood: Happy
Music: Ten Years After – Rock & Roll Music to the World