The Saudi National Center for Meteorology (NCM) said that heavy rain lashed across Jeddah flooding several parts of the province and sweeping away cars and vehicles was the higest ever recorded rain.
The rain on Thursday lasted for about eight hours from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and amounted to 179.7 millimeter of water, according to the center’s monitoring stations.
An official spokesperson of NCM said Jeddah last saw such heavy rains in 2009 and 2011, but the intensity was less at 111 mm, and 90 mm, respectively.
The center said it will prepare ancillary reports of possible weather phenomena over the regions of the kingdom.
Police officers and emergency services were dispatched around the city to help motorists on the road, according to the Makkah Region’s official Twitter account.