A Year of Weather in a Week

When I arrived, the first day was indeed perfect. The next few days it was cloudy and I could smell rain. No one else could though. As a waiter told me, it rained so rarely, like only 3 times a year, he didn’t know what rain smelled like. Even though I could smell the rain, it didn’t rain in Cairo, yet.

It did sandstorm though. A wonderfully dusty experience where I had this painful observation:

While the sand was collecting in every nook and cranny of my existence, I was reminded of another desert I tried to hold back: the Gobi. I didn’t succeed there either.

I did succeed in finally seeing it rain in Cairo. In the middle of dinner one night, I looked out the window and realized it was pouring down rain outside. I startled my companions by dashing to the window, looking for Cairenes dancing in the streets, shocked by water from the sky. No such luck. While it’s rare, no one ran out into the street in shock about the rain.

I was in shock that I saw a sandstorm and a rainstorm in the same week. Next up: snow! Yes, believe me, that has to be the next Egyptian weather phenomenon that I’ll experience here!