September starts in a few days, so does meteorological autumn! Meteorological autumn starts in September and lasts till November in the northern hemisphere. These are the months where temperatures start to decline. However, astronomical autumn starts on Sep 22/23, when length of day becomes equal to night time. However, meteorological autumn starts before astronomical autumn since days are already getting shorter with less solar energy day by day. But for folks residing in the Arabian Peninsula, it may still feel like SUMMER! It will take up to end of September and early October for some cooling to take effect. Of course. [ Read More ]
Archive for August, 2010
Pakistan is flooded. What a historic flooding!? I wish everybody there safety and a speedy recovery. Pakistan usually receives summer rain. The indian monsoon that builds up in summer, stretches up to Pakistan every year during July and August. But 2010 monsoon proved to be totally different! While the media has focused extensively on the human and health impacts of the flooding, I thought of giving an idea of how much rain really fell in Pakistan. The below 2 images (from NASA TRMM site) shows rainfall for the last 30 days. The first shows total rainfall, and the second shows anomaly [ Read More ]
While the word summer, for many people living in the Arabian Peninsula, immediately means hot temperatures of above 40c with dry sunny days, it may not mean the same for some. In fact, there are places in Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen where summer might mean something that is not really summer-like. In reality, parts of SE Oman, S and SW Saudi Arabia, and much of Yemen enjoy summers that are wet and pleasant. However, the summer of 2010 have so far brought more than their typical share of summer rain. Starting with Oman, the city of Salalah, pictured above, (Thofar [ Read More ]
While brief afternoon mountaineous summer thunderstorms are normal in the UAE, they have been more widespread and longer-lasting on Aug 2nd & 3rd, 2010. Thunderstorms affected mountaineous areas near UAE Eastern Coast, around and south of Hatta and Masafi areas and west of Fujairah. Thunderstorms have also hit southern/western desert areas south of Abu Dhabi and continued till late evening. Dust storms hit Al Ain due to strong winds from nearby thunderstorms. These conditions are expected to continue for a couple of days.
