April 30th, 2010
More weird weather on the way!
May, a month that is supposed to be dry, one month away from June, the start of summer, will start with a fresh and strong round of thunderstorms and rain over central and NW Arabian Peninsula.
A deep low (typical of late winter) will pass over Turkey and cooler air into northern Arabia, resulting in explosive thunderstorms over a large part of Saudi Arabia. Western Yemen, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar are also at risk of these thunderstorms. Rain and thunderstorms will also extend to much of Iraq and western Iran. The middeteranian countries and Egypt might also be getting some showers and a few thunderstorms.
God help Saudi Arabia from these monsterous thunderstorms! The probability of flood is there!
Rainfall during the next 7 days. Purple spots indicate heavy rain
April 30th, 2010
April proved to be really wet across a large part of the Arabian Peninsula, mainly over much of central Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar have also been affected by periods of thunderstorms. Iraq and western Iran also got periods of heavy rain/showers/thunderstorms.
Rain in Riyadh
Thunderstorms were forming on more or less a daily basis for at least 3 weeks. And this is not reaching an end yet, thanks to abundant equatorial moisutre coming and weak upper troughs!
But how much rain really fell?
The first map below shows rainfall accumulation/day during the last 30 days. Well, Saudi Arabia got more rainfall than France or Germany! It seems that rainfall was between 50 and 250 mm. And SW Saudi Arabia was hit hard by around 200 mm of flooding rain, which resulted in fatalities.
Rainfall for last 30 days ending on Apr 30, 2010
What is even more astonishing is the upcoming May storm!
April 23rd, 2010
Tropical moisture continues to flow into Arabia, and lows continue to drift over SW Asia, inducing thunderstorms formation over Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, and Iran. During the next 7 days, it will be the same with effects possibly reaching Bahrain and Qatar.
There are hints that early May will also show a similar pattern; however, that will be extremely abnormal given that May is a very dry month and summer is on the way
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