| Submit your comments on this article |
| Iraq |
| Intense sand, dust storms due in Iraq next week |
| 2003-03-21 |
| A powerful storm system is likely to pummel military forces in and around Iraq with blinding sand and choking dust beginning Monday night, meteorologists predicted yesterday. Winds are expected to exceed 50 mph in gusts in southern Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, said meteorologists at Accuweather.com, a commercial forecasting company. The dust storm Wednesday blew through at about 20 to 30 mph. Temperatures around Baghdad are predicted to climb, reaching 90 degrees. Winds should peak Tuesday. In northern Iraq next week, the powerful front is likely to produce rain that will limit dust clouds. But the precipitation is not expected to reach the south, where troops are rolling into the country from Kuwait, so nothing will prevent gusts of 40 to 50 mph from scouring the earth and raising thick veils of dust. Storms this intense can limit visibility to less than 100 feet. Some American troops can use heat-sensing gun sights that can detect targets even in fairly thick dust. Satellite-guided bombs are not hampered. Helicopters are put at great risk by the heavy dust. The chances of powerful storms will ebb in the coming weeks, but temperatures probably will keep rising. Said Ken Reeves, a senior meteorologist at Accuweather, "If you have to endure that kind of heat in the biohazard suits they have to put on, it can get very difficult". Military officials said American forecasting efforts were aimed at exploiting bad conditions, given that they equally affect each side in a conflict. "The U.S. military is without a doubt the best in the world at exploiting the environment and the weather to a tactical advantage," said Capt. Jeffrey Bacon, the commanding officer at the Naval Atlantic Meteorology and Oceanography Center in Norfolk, Va. |
| Posted by:anon |