BEIRUT: Heavy rain flooded key roads in and around Beirut Friday, leaving several hundred commuters stranded in their cars. Weather experts said that the rain will peter out at the weekend’s end, when temperatures will drop sharply.

Although traffic usually flows freely at noon on the Karantina Highway behind the Forum De Beyrouth complex, it was stopped due to the flooding Friday. Sami Solh Street in the neighborhood of Badaro and the corniche in Ain al-Mreisseh also experienced similar flooding.

Around noon, hundreds of cars on the road from Jounieh to Beirut were trapped in a resulting traffic jam that stretched for several kilometers.

Lebanese Army and Civil Defense personnel rescued more than 10 people who were stuck in their cars surrounded by water levels of around one meter. They also blocked further traffic to the flooded areas.

In an emergency measure, the Internal Security Forces also dispatched personnel to remove several manholes to ease the flow of water from streets into sewage drains.

The rain is set to continue through the weekend. Ghassan Taksh, a Civil Aviation Department official at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport said that “the weekend will continue to be rainy and snow will continue to fall in areas 1500 meters above sea level.”

Taksh told The Daily Star that the rain and snow should halt by Sunday evening, followed by a sharp drop in temperature. Taksh added that those driving to the mountains should take the necessary precautions, warning drivers about icy roads.

On the coast, temperatures will drop as low as 6 degrees Celsius at night and will go up to 18 degrees Celsius during the day, while temperatures will go down to -2 degrees in the mountains at night and 10 during the day, he said.

Taksh added that weekend temperatures in the Bekaa will vary between 1 and 12 degrees Celsius.

Another weather expert at the CAD called on drivers to take warnings about icy roads “seriously.”

“Starting from the Dahr al-Baidar crossing leading to the Bekaa, drivers should be careful about icy roads as of Sunday evening,” Abbas Obeid told The Daily Star.

According to Obeid, roads in the Bekaa’s Deir al-Ahmar region would also become icy due to the town’s location. “Although its elevation is below 1,500 meters, its geographic location will make it vulnerable to extreme cold weather during the winter,” said Obeid.

He also said that Lebanon’s rainfall has already exceeded the 112 millimeter 30-year average for the rainy season.

“So far there has been 145 millimeters of rainfall, more than double the average of last year,” said Obeid, adding that Friday’s rainfall was responsible for a sharp rise in the precipitation figure.

Asked who was to be blamed for Friday’s floods, Obeid said poorly developed sewage systems might have been the cause of the water accumulation, “but it should also be noted that there was heavy intensity of rainfall during a short period of time at noon Friday.”