It looks like we’ll be getting a “white” Christmas after all…

Residents in Dubai and Abu Dhabi woke up to find the emirates blanketed in fog over the weekend, causing flight delays and cancellations during the busy holiday period.

The National Centre for Meteorology (NCM) issued an advisory on Saturday warning that dense fog was expected to develop over most parts of the country overnight, and would continue into Sunday and Monday mornings.

Emirates put out a travel update on Sunday morning warning of flight disruption at Dubai International Airport.

The airline cancelled 10 flights on Sunday due to the fog. Flights affected were between Dubai and Tehran, Bahrain, Dammam, Kuwait, Larnaca, Basra, Ammam, Budapest, Hong Kong and Baghdad, according to its website.

Flightradar24 shared an image of planes in a holding pattern waiting for the fog to clear so they could land at Dubai Airport:

Meanwhile, Etihad said on Saturday morning it had been experiencing several delays and cancellations due to fog in Abu Dhabi.

“We will continue to monitor the weather conditions and have contingency plans in place should there be any further disruption to our flight schedule,” the airline said in a tweet.

The rare phenomenon – which makes the city’s skyscrapers look as though they’re emerging from the clouds – only occurs a few times a year.

Many Dubai residents have been sharing photos and videos of the city engulfed in fog:

#foggy #foggymorning #rooftop #mydubai #dubaifog

A post shared by Shabeer BoxWish (@shabeerks) on

In more than 5 years that I live in Dubai I’ve never seen a day like this – full day of fog and a foggy sunset! And what a chance was given to me by the universe and by @danyeidphotography (thank you Dany) to capture this amazing sunset from the top of the @Cayan_Group​ tower. It’s so overwhelming I’ve got no words. I haven’t shot Dubai for so long I forgot this feeling of utter joy of going somewhere with a breath-taking view and creating images that people envy for years to come. (Come on, it happens). I forgot how much I love talking about tripods, filters, lenses and angles… and this weekend was just that. Awesome people, awesome places and, I’ll be modest here, hopefully some decent images to process. Thank you everyone who was a part of it, thank you #dubaifog for this awesome Christmas gift. Merry Christmas my friends and don’t forget to shoot from the heart. One love. Mother Nature.

A post shared by Anna Shtraus (@annashtraus) on

– For more about Dubai straight to your newsfeed, follow us on Facebook

Main image: @montenegro.dubai/INSTAGRAM