Poor visibility in Riyadh forces motorists to switch on headlights of their vehicles.

Motorists grappled with poor visibility and the day temperature dropped by 10 degrees Celsius on Saturday, a day after a huge sandstorm struck the capital.

Although no untoward incident was reported, the Civil Defense advised people to avoid picnic spots in the desert.

The traffic department urged motorists to exercise caution and drive slowly to avoid mishaps until the situation gets back to normal.

Air traffic was, however, not affected and flights were on schedule at the King Khalid International Airport.

The Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME) said sandstorm was approaching Riyadh with a one-meter horizontal visibility.

The wind speed was recorded at 27 km per hour on Saturday and the maximum temperatures came down to 30 degrees Celsius as against 40 degrees on Thursday. The humidity was relatively low at 11 percent.

This year has seen a rash of massive dust storms that have led to travel chaos and blocked out sunlight — but experts cannot pinpoint the reason behind the spate.

On April 17, an incredible footage showed an unusual ‘apocalyptic’ dust storm, known in Arabic as a haboob, struck Belarus, turning day to night, and China has suffered four massive sandstorms since the start of the year.

Some experts have said that climate change bringing excessive heat can make some areas more susceptible to dust storms, but one European scientist pointed out that the number of dust storms over the decades has always been variable, according to Mail Online.

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