Outlook for the Next 5 Days; Potential for a cold wave and strong winds in the Arabian Gulf Region

Sunday could bring showers to Kuwait and northern Arabian Gulf, southern Iraq, and southern Iran.

Starting Monday, very cold upper air associated with an upper air low approaching Iran, will unleash more rain and snow over Iran and Iraq.

On Tuesday, this cold front starts crossing the Arabian Gulf region, but sadly, there will be little moisture for this cold front to tap on. Therefore, there will just be some clouds with a small chance of rain in the northern parts of the UAE and Oman.

Between Sunday and Tuesday, it will be very warm in the UAE with near-record highs.

Nevertheless, cold air behind the low is going to suddenly cool the whole region starting Tuesday for northern Arabian Gulf such as Kuwait. On Wednesday, cool air arrives to the UAE and the southern gulf region, dropping high temperature by around 8 degrees (from late 20s or even 30c to early 20c and late teens by Thursday). In a nutshell, at time of coldest air, high temperature will hover around mid teens in Kuwait city and Riyadh, mid to late teens in Bahrain and Qatar, and late teens in the UAE most likely on Thursday. The weather will quickly warm up by the end of the weekend, but not before experiencing the coldest nights of this season.

But, there are signs of extreme weather in the UAE, the Arabian Gulf, and the Gulf of Oman. I’m not talking about rain. I’m referring to high winds and waves. Due to the extreme proximity of cold and warm air, surface high and low pressures, windy and gusty conditions will develop very quickly on Wednesday and Thursday across the UAE. Highest expected winds could reach 55 Km/h with gusts possibly hitting more than 60 Km/hr. That means the weather will feel much cooler than recorded temperature due to wind chill.

Considering that there will almost be a full moon on Wednesday/Thursday, I’m wondering how high sea waves could be. This photo has been taken on Jan 11, 2005. Will something similar happens? More accurate forecasts later.

High waves in Sharjah Jan 11, 2005