Saudi Al-Ula Celebrates Guinness World Record For Longest Hot Air Balloon Glow Show

Balloonists from 19 countries completed the record breaking attempt. AAAWSAT AR Website
Balloonists from 19 countries completed the record breaking attempt. AAAWSAT AR Website
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Saudi Al-Ula Celebrates Guinness World Record For Longest Hot Air Balloon Glow Show

Balloonists from 19 countries completed the record breaking attempt. AAAWSAT AR Website
Balloonists from 19 countries completed the record breaking attempt. AAAWSAT AR Website

Saudi Arabia's Al-Ula Province won the Guinness World Records (GWR) title for Longest hot air balloon glow show with 100 balloons having spread across 3km over the the desert.

Balloonists from 19 countries around the world completed the record breaking attempt as part of the ongoing Winter at Tantora festival in north west Saudi Arabia.

Glow shows are a regular attraction at Al-Ula ongoing Winter at Tantora arts, music and culture festival. An official adjudicator from GWR attended the event which saw the 100 balloons stationed 30 meters apart, to verify the official attempt as the hot air ballooning festival at Winter at Tantora came to an end.

For his part, Amr Al Madani, CEO of the Royal Commission for Al-Ula, and president of SAHAB, the Saudi Arabian Balloon Federation, said: “We are enormously proud to have been recognised by GWR for this achievement."

“This was a tremendously complex task in planning and coordination to ensure that it was achieved with maximum impact and it was truly a night to remember and demonstrates once again the extraordinary opportunities that Al-Ula has to offer in every sphere as a destination,” he added.

The balloonists who took part in the event were all certified experts who hold commercial pilot’s licences.

They offered festival attendees the opportunity to glide over and through Al-Ula's spectacular landscape and some of its 7,000 years of archaeological remains.

Winter at Tantora runs until March 7, and features a range of top-class entertainment, cultural, arts and sporting events, including concerts at the mirrored Maraya concert hall and the Fursan horse endurance race on Feb. 1.



India Gets 9% More Monsoon Rain in July After Weak June 

Children play in the rain in Mumbai, India, June 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Children play in the rain in Mumbai, India, June 20, 2024. (Reuters)
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India Gets 9% More Monsoon Rain in July After Weak June 

Children play in the rain in Mumbai, India, June 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Children play in the rain in Mumbai, India, June 20, 2024. (Reuters)

India received 9% more rainfall than average in July as the monsoon covered the entire country ahead of schedule, delivering heavy rain in central and southern states, weather department data showed on Wednesday.

The lifeblood of the nearly $3.5 trillion economy, the monsoon brings nearly 70% of the rain India needs to water farms and refill reservoirs and aquifers.

Without irrigation, nearly half of the farmland in the world's second-biggest producer of rice, wheat and sugar depends on the annual rains that usually run from June to September.

In July, southern and central regions of the country received nearly a third more rainfall than the average, while east and north-eastern regions received 23.3% less rainfall, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

The north-western part of the country got 14.3% less rainfall than average.

The surplus rainfall in July helped erase June's rainfall deficit of 10.9%, and the country has received 1.8% more rainfall since the start of the monsoon season on June 1.

Summer rains, critical for economic growth in Asia's third-largest economy, usually begin in the south around June 1 before spreading nationwide by July 8, allowing farmers to plant crops such as rice, cotton, soybeans and sugarcane.

This year monsoon covered the entire country six days ahead of the usual time of arrival, helping farmers to accelerate planting of summer-sown crops.