Video Shows Qatar Hit With Rare Tornado Ahead of World Cup Quarterfinals

A rare tornado hit northern Qatar on Wednesday, according to a tweet from the Qatar Meteorology Department.

The tornado hit between the end of the Round 16 matches and the quarterfinals of the FIFA World Cup, which is taking place in Doha, the nation's capital on the eastern coast. The quarterfinals are scheduled to begin Friday, with a match between Croatia and Brazil and a match between the Netherlands and Argentina. The BBC reported that more than 1 million fans have traveled to Doha for the World Cup

Qatar has the lowest risk factor for a natural disaster of any country, according to the World Risk Report, a worldwide study by United Nations University published in 2016. Although natural disasters aren't unheard of in Qatar, tornadoes are rare and the Qatar Meteorology Department shared footage of one roaring across a desert on Wednesday.

In the first video the department tweeted, what appears to be a large, ominous, black tornado is touching down in a swath of desert. The second video the department posted appears to show the tornado from farther away. Each video is only seconds long.

Shortly before it posted the videos of the tornado, the Qatar Meteorology Department posted a forecast map showing storms approaching from the northeast. The tweet warned of "scattered rain becomes thundery at times" and urged people to "please be careful." The forecast showed several points of severe weather.

AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jason Nicholls told Newsweek that atmospheric conditions on Wednesday were ideal for tornado formation.

"They are rare, but they have been known to happen," Nicholls said, citing November of 2019 and November 2016 as dates of other tornados in Qatar.

Tornados are rare in Qatar because of the nation's arid climate and lack of clashes in air mass.

The tornado is unlikely to be the last severe weather Qatar experiences this week. The Qatar Meteorology Department posted a forecast that predicts rainy weather with "varying intensity at intermittent intervals" through Saturday.

Nicholls said that Doha could see some rain on Saturday, but any other tornados sparked by the atmospheric conditions were likely to hit northern Qatar again. The Saturday rain could impact the game between Morocco and Portugal by making the field slick, but the storm is expected to dissipate before the game between England and France later in the day.

The Qatar Meteorology Department said the turbulent weather coincides with the start of Qatar's "severity of winter," which lasts roughly 40 days.