Maneesh Bakshi
Doha
QATAR experienced light to heavy rainfall on Friday which caused waterlogging in several neighbourhoods and city intersections.
Being a non-working day, the city residents mainly remained indoors throughout the day, with a few enjoying their day off in Souq Waqif and the Doha Corniche.
The Qatar Meteorology Department had predicted scattered rainfall with occasional thunder in most places along with strong winds inshore and offshore.
There were little public activities during the day. And the rainfall disrupted some of Friday's Qatar Total Open tennis tournament matches. Veronica, a diehard tennis fan, when asked about the disruption in matches, said:"I'm a little disappointed, but then nobody can control nature and the good thing about this is that we got to see many of the players and enjoy the lovely weather."
According to the Met department forecast, another cold and cloudy day is expected on Saturday. In its advisory, residents were urged by the Traffic department to drive safely on wet roads taking the necessary precautions.
Moreover, the emergency team at Doha Municipality on Friday received 68 reports of waterlogging cases and has executed 15 operations of rainwater pumping from the city streets using 47 tankers, according to a source at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment.