Coronavirus: Did Bahrain's skyline become visible from Saudi Arabia as skies cleared?

Social media users posted images of Manama in the distance from Al Khobar

Bahrain's capital Manama has become clearly visible from Al Khobar in Saudi Arabia. Picture for illustrative purposes. Getty Images

While the coronavirus has symbolically cast a dark cloud over much of the world, the actual effect on our skies has been quite the opposite.

And an example of this may have been seen along the east coast of Saudi Arabia, according to social media users.

Residents of Al Khobar, just to the south of Dammam, took to Twitter during the weekend to share images of what they claimed to be the skyline of Bahrain visible from the shores of Saudi. When the photos were taken has been called into question, however.

The distance between Al Khobar's corniche and the high-rise towers in Bahrain's capital Manama is approximately 40km. The two are connected by the King Fahd Causeway.

Visibility across the Middle East is often reduced, especially in exposed areas, as winds pick up sand and dust particles.

One Twitter user said Manama was at its most visible from Al Khobar in "ten years".

However, as photos circulated online, another said he posted in October one of the images that has been widely circulating.

Air pollution and co2 emissions have decreased since the pandemic led to the closure of factories, shops and offices, and grounded thousands of aircraft.

“Visible, positive impacts – whether through improved air quality or reduced greenhouse gas emissions – are but temporary, because they come on the back of tragic economic slowdown and human distress,” Inger Andersen, the head of the United Nation’s Environment Programme, wrote in an open letter in April.

Significant improvements to the air quality have been seen in typically polluted nations such as India and China as a result of lockdowns.

In India, 118 large and small cities had been given Air Quality Index ratings of 'good' and 'satisfactory' in April and were at least four times cleaner than average pollution levels.

Research released last week by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) claimed there will be 11,000 fewer deaths in European countries under coronavirus lockdown due to a sharp drop in fossil fuel pollution during April.

"The impacts are the same or bigger in many other parts of the world," Myllyvirta, Lauri Myllyvirta, senior analyst at CREA, told AFP. "So we are looking at an even larger number of avoided deaths."

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Coronavirus around the Middle East

A Yemeni man drives his motorcycle through a cloud of disinfectant substance used against the novel coronavirus, as workers fumigate a street in the old city market of the capital Sanaa. AFP

A boy plays football in front of closed Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah mosque at El Moez Street in old Islamic Cairo. Reuters

A man walks in front of closed coffee shops, amid concerns over the coronavirus at El Moez Street in old Islamic Cairo, Egypt. Reuters

Security personnel stand outside an UNRWA school building, used as isolation centre for coronavirus patients, at the Wavel Palestinian refugee camp in Baalbek, in Lebanon's Bekaa valle. Reuters

Volunteers dressed in coronavirus-themed costumes gesture as they stand on a vehicle during a campaign organised by the Violet Organisation, in an effort to spread awareness and encourage safety in the rebel-held Idlib city, Syria. Reuters

Syrian Muslim worshippers crowd a mosque in the opposition held city of Idlib in northwestern Syria. AFP

A policeman motions to vehicles passing through a security checkpoint enforcing a curfew due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in Iraq's southern city of Basra during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan on April 30, 2020. AFP

An Iranian woman reads the Quran as worshippers sit in their vehicles while taking part in a religious ceremony during Ramadan in a parking area of Tehran's Eram park in the Iranian capital. AFP

Iranians sit in their vehicles while taking part in a religious ceremony in Tehran's Eram park in the Iranian capital. AFP

Carnations are seen spread on the ground in front of Turkish police officers as trade union leaders attempt to defy a ban and march on Taksim Square to celebrate May Day, during a three-day curfew in Istanbul, Turkey. Reuters