The building of the railway and pipeline had not been greatly affected by the fighting on 23 April, and by 29 April four trains a day were running regularly to the railhead, manned by No. 276 Railway Company, and the main line to Romani was opened on 19 May. A second standard-gauge railway line from Romani to Mahamdiyah on the Mediterranean coast was completed by 9 June. However, conditions on the ground were extreme; after the middle of May and in particular from mid-June to the end of July, the heat in the Sinai Desert ranged from extreme to fierce, when temperatures could be expected to be in the region of in the shade. The terrible heat was not as bad as the Khamsin dust storms that blow once every 50 days for between a few hours and several days; the air is turned into a haze of floating sand particles flung about by a strong, hot southerly wind.