Looking farther afield, Dhahran is northeast of Abqaiq, and southeast of Qatif and, further north, Ras Tanura, a major oil port.

The Kingdom of Bahrain is also within easy driving distance to the east (about 32 km [20 mi]), across the King Fahd Causeway, from Khobar.

[1] The Dhahran-Dammam area is one of two regions, the other being Jeddah, that were selected as potential sites to build the first Saudi nuclear reactor.

Dhahran has a hot desert climate (Köppen: BWh), featuring summers among the hottest and most humid in the world, and virtually frost-free winters.

Temperatures can rise to more than 40 °C (104 °F) in the summer, coupled with high humidity, [citation needed] given the city's proximity to the Persian Gulf.

The Shamal winds usually blow across the city in the early months of the summer, bringing dust storms that can reduce visibility to a few metres.

[8] During World War II on 19 October 1940 Dhahran was struck by Italian Royal Air Force (Regia Aeronautica) as a part of Bombing of Bahrain, causing minimal damage.

On February 25, 1991, an Iraqi Al-Hussein missile hit a U.S. Army barracks in the city, killing 28 American reservists from Pennsylvania.

(See: Saudi Aramco)[citation needed] Nearly a century after its foundation in 1933, Dhahran is still Saudi Aramco's worldwide headquarters and the center of the company's finance, exploration, engineering, drilling services, medical services, materials supply and other company organisations.

There are also many non-Saudi Arab nationals living in Dhahran, such as Yemenis, Egyptians, Jordanians, Lebanese, Palestinians, Sudanese, and Syrians.

Although built originally to house only expatriate oil company employees (mainly Americans) to provide a degree of Western comfort and separation from the restrictions of Saudi and Islamic laws, the community today has shifted somewhat in line with the reduction of western residents into a multi-ethnic mosaic of Saudis, other Arab nationalities (e.g., Egyptian and Jordanian), Asians, Europeans, South Americans, Africans and Australians.

Dhahran is unique in a way that majority of the population live inside gated communities, whether built by Saudi Aramco, KFUPM or military.

The extensive highway network in the Dhahran, Khobar, Dammam area serves the strategically important national oil industry, led by Saudi Aramco, as well as the local population.

Although rail service in Saudi Arabia plays a much more minor role today than 50 years ago, an industrial railroad with a station adjacent to Dhahran still exists, linking it to the capital Riyadh.

Public transport buses are only available in a very limited manner, with taxi services, at reasonable prices and widely available, proving more popular.

Many smaller residential compounds also operate their own bus services which are typically used for transport to places of work or shopping trips by residents.

Mobile telephone communications are provided mainly by STC, Mobily and Zain, which have launched 3G, 4G and 5G services to their customers.

These schools are strictly only for the children of expatriate Saudi Aramco employees but are provided completely free of charge to them.