Dramatic footage shows the moment a huge tornado struck World Cup host Qatar with black spiral-shaped clouds spinning across the desert.
Qatar's meteorological department tweeted the footage along with weather updates saying scattered rain will become thundery at times inshore and offshore and urged people to "please be careful."
Tornadoes are also extremely rare in Qatar, which, according to the World Risk Index, has the lowest threat level from natural disasters of any country on earth.
Some pundits raised concerns about the conditions for the footballers to play in as torrential rain has also hit the country for the first time since the tournament kicked off last month.
The extreme weather is reportedly in Ras Laffan Industrial City, around 50 miles north of the Qatari capital Doha.
Roads in Ras Laffan have been flooded due to the sudden weather, which is a town less than half an hour's drive from Al Khor stadium, the most northern of the World Cup venues.
Today is the first day off from football in almost three weeks and football pundit Gary Lineker shared a picture of Wednesday's cloudy skies, tweeting: "First day without football. First day with a cloud."
The storm comes as England's players and coaching staff are training in preparation for Saturday's hotly-anticipated game against France.
Throughout the year in Qatar, the average temperature is around 29 degrees Celsius with highs in the summer months reaching 45 degrees.
The news comes as residents in southeastern Oklahoma and northeastern Texas are working to recover their homes and surrounding areas after a storm stretching from Dallas to northwest Arkansas spawned tornadoes and produced flash flooding, killing at least two people, injuring others and leaving homes and buildings in ruins.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol also reported a 6-year-old girl drowned and a 43-year-old man was missing after their vehicle was swept by water off a bridge.
