Muddy Rain: It rained mud a few days ago in Beirut. As a friend said “It rained mud and now it will get hotter.” I have no further explanation as of yet. But all the cars look like this now.
Missives on Rain Vol. 5
I know I’m belaboring this rain thing, but Friday it rained more than I have ever seen in my entire life. Not seen in Beirut or seen in the Middle East, this was some torrential, tropical-style epic downpour.
Even on the scale of Lebanon fall/winter (which I totally underestimated before leaving by the way: Q:”Does it rain in Beirut”, A:”Yeah I heard a little”) Friday was unusual. It rained for 4 hours straight turning major roads into rushing rivers. I was out at General Security in southeast Beirut getting my visa renewed (quite easy, but yes, my Arabic is still poor) when the skies opened up. The storm drains are so few and far between that if you got out into the middle of a road you couldn’t get back to a sidewalk. I was stuck with quite a few other people looking for a cab in the middle of a busy road.
After catching a cab back to west Beirut I gave up trying to stay dry and just waded home, soaked. Apparently the bad weather breaks this week though. So we are back to clear skies and mid 60s during the day.
It continues to rain
I think there’s a reason the colloquial word for rain and winter are the same. The rain has barely let up for the past 3 days. It rained so much it knocked our internet out, although that might say more about Lebanon infrastructure than the strength of the rain…
Rain and more Rain
I’m begining to see that a rain jacket and umbrella may need to be my first clothing purchases in Beirut. There has been torrential rain for the last 4-5 hours, its wild, and given the limited number of drains in the city, its turned the streets into one giant bubbling water fountain like you see in the lobbies of fancy hotels. Seeing as its going to keep raining for the next four days, rain jacket is even going to go higher on my clothing list than “tighter jeans” and “cool hoodie”
In other news, my brain is totally fried after 4 hours of Arabic today. who knew حضّر حضرhad different meanings (to watch and to prepare) sigh.
