Rusfox
I did not happen to experience any sand storm in Baghdad during my stay there. But the heat can realy be a problem. There is no shadow to hide in. It is just an open desert and when it is hot spring or summer day it feels like you are in a hot sticky sunny syrup. It is next to impossible to live there without good air conditioning. I was boiling. The only way to sleep there is under soaking wet bed sheet with all air conditioners on maximum cool mode.
I was always wondering how those women, dressed in black veil from head to toes, manage to survive in that hot sunny hell.
In addition to that arabs use to dring hot strong sweet tea.
Speaking about sand storms, I experienced it once in the capital of Kazakhstan. It is like very thick fog and it is everywhere, you were wight here. People have to stay indooors with all the windows closed. It can last for 24 hours sometimes. We lived on 9th floor then and we could not see anything through our windows, just a thick yellow fog. WE had to swip about 2
cm layer of sand from our terrace on the next day.