Emirates Meteorology Blog » Arabian Gulf

May 2010 to Start with a Bang in Arabia

Ahmed — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 07:47:28 +0000

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 2010 Above Average Rainfall in Arabia

Ahmed — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 07:30:59 +0000

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!

Spring Thunderstorms Continue in Arabia late April 2010

Ahmed — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 13:03:06 +0000

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

Last 7 days rainfall in Arabia

Ahmed — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 15:37:54 +0000

Numerous thunderstorms have affected the Arabian peninsulua with severe storms in SW Saudi Arabia as well as strong storms in Bahrain. There are reports of casualities in Saudi Arabia

Between 100 and 200 mm have fallen over Saudi Arabia

Unstable weather could make a return late March in the Gulf

Ahmed — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 13:30:38 +0000

An upper-air low is tracking eastward over Iraq and Iran, causing rainshowers and thunderstorms over many areas in the Middeteranian countries, Iraq, and Iran during the next 48 hours.

At the same time, its cold front will extend to parts of the Arabian Peninsula, bringing the risk of thundershowers to Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and especially Saudi Arabia near the shores of the Arabian Gulf. By Sunday, the weak cold front arrives to the eastern gulf near the UAE, bringing in scattered clouds and a small chance of thundershowers. Before the arrival of the cold front, it will be very hot in the UAE.

Once again on Tuesday and Wednesday, an upper air trough could result in some thunderstorms in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, possibly Kuwait, and the UAE. Afterthat, there is the potential for high winds and cooler air.

An upper low bringing widespread rain to some parts of SW Asia

UAE issues Severe Weather Warning

Ahmed — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:24:30 +0000

Severe weather warning has been issued in anticipation of powerful thunderstorms from Monday night till late Tuesday.

The cold front hit the UAE with thunderstorms and gusty winds, dumping more than 60 mm of rain in Dhudna and Masafi, and around 50 mm in Ghantout. Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah received around 40, 22, and 35 mm of rain.

Thunderstorms have also hit Qatar, Oman, the Arabian Gulf, and Gulf of Oman.

Image source: Gulfnews.com

Video: Heavy Thunderstorms Wreck Havoc on the UAE

Ahmed — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 19:02:15 +0000

See youtube videos of the storm here and here.

The storms resulted in 4 casualties.

Extreme thunderstorms in various parts of the UAE have paralyzed life with torrential rain, hail, high winds, and lightning strikes.

Eastern and Northern emirates including Dubai were hit hard. Sharjah city received the highest amount of 36 mm of rain in just 2 hours.

image source: GulfNews

Summer Meets Winter; Showers and Thunderstorms in the UAE & Oman Feb 27-28, 2010; Severe Weather Possible March 1-2, 2010

Ahmed — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:38:55 +0000

Surface lows and fronts on Fri Feb 26 2010

An upper low is currently over the middeteranian countries which brought rain showers and thunderstorms there including some heavy showers to Egypt. There are also rain and thunderstorms over parts of Iraq, Iran, NW Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Currently hot weather with southerly winds are affecting the UAE & Oman. It feels like summer here in the UAE with temperatures hovering in mid 30s. Right now the cold front (blue) is unable to cause any rain/thunderstorms formation due to interaction with dry air. On Saturday/Sunday it will result in thunderstorms and rain showers over many parts of the UAE (especially north) and northern Oman (Slight chance of rain in Bahrain and Qatar). Some thunderstorms could be strong. Rainfall amounts could be anywhere between 1 to 25 mm.

Spring starts on March 1st, 2010 with a collision between summer and winter with heavy rain and thunderstorms in the UAE.

Speculation of the next Low in Arabia

Ahmed — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 13:25:43 +0000

Feb 26, 2010 Update:

Saturday to bring showers and thunderstorms to the UAE and then northen Oman on Sunday.

Late Monday to Tuesday there is risk of very heavy rain and strong thunderstorms in parts of the UAE and Oman.

Feb 24, 2010 Update:

It seems that there will be 2 waves of rain affecting the region. The first one being on Saturday with impact on the UAE. There will be possibly some scattered showers and a few thunderstorms on parts of the UAE along the Arabian Gulf. Then the impact might move to eastern UAE and Oman early Sunday.

The 2nd wave of rain could contain heavy thunderstorms forming on Monday till Tuesday. Some models predicitng it to hit the UAE and others show Oman as a target. Some models predict the storms to be exceptionally heavy with lots of rain.

Friday could be hot with temperaturs raching 35 with the possibility of a sandstorm.

In all cases UAE and Oman should keep an eye on the developing weather.

Saturday Feb 27 2010 500mb upper air heights. Tight contours around the UAE.

Tuesday Mar 2nd, 2010 500mb upper air heights. The upper low gets closer to the UAE and Oman

Feb 21, 2010 Update

This post is going to be continuously updated and it is about the possibility of a spring low pressure system that could impact various parts of the Arabian Peninsula.

I’m must emphasize that I’m more than 50% confident of thunderstorm and rain formation somewhere over thr Arabian Gulf sometime between Feb 27 and March 2nd. However, I’m less than 40% sure of the impact on the UAE. The weather models are not agreeing on a certain scenario so far!

We shall wait and see.

Expect very warm weather on Friday Feb 26, as a developing low forces winds to blow from the south, before the potential arrival of an active cold front!

A cold front to bring showers to the UAE and heavy rain to Oman Feb 5 – 7, 2010

Ahmed — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:59:58 +0000

After those hot and dusty winter days, a cold front will affect the UAE on Friday with chance of showers and thunderstorms on Friday and Saturday Feb 5-6, 2010. Higher chance offshore (Arabian and Gulf of Oman), and along the northern coasts.

On Sunday the same cold front could deliver heavy rain to Oman and parts of Eastern UAE.

Cooler weather to follow.