Emirates Meteorology Portal

The first week of Jan 2012 brings almost the same weather. January is typically the coolest month of the year. Aside from the duststorm and southerly winds that hit Kuwait today, this week’s weather is going to be essentially the same as much of Dec 2011. But a slight warming is expected in the gulf countries on Monday before gusty and cool northwesterly winds arrive over the gulf starting Tuesday with windy conditions expected in Bahrain, Qatar, and the UAE by Wednesday. The Mediterranean continues to be receiving low pressures. This dry trend could continue well into mid January.

Nighttime temperatures over interior areas have been lower than average during December, except for coastal areas. Temperatures could again fall to below 10c, to around 6-9c over inland areas during early hours of Thursday and Friday (Dec 22-23). This includes areas that are a few kilometers away from the coastlines. The immediate coastlines and city centres will not be as cold, due to proximity to the mild waters of the gulf, and will be in mid teens. The coastlines are oftern warmer by 5-7 degrees during nighttime compared to interio areas. During December 2011, temperatures as low as 6 or  [ Read More ]

In my opinion, Dubai is more likely to get a shower than such a freaky sandstorm as seen in the latest Mission Impossible movie. While duststorms are quite common in the UAE and Dubai, such severe and blinding sandstorms are rare in northern UAE including Dubai due to geographical location and climate of the UAE. Duststorms have much less concentration of sand and are not as thick near the surface. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iraq have experienced such sandstorms. In those countries sudden and strong northwesterly winds (from cold fronts and thunderstorms) can kick up sand ahead of the fronts and move it eastward. In  [ Read More ]

Back to square one? After a wet and cool end for November for much of northern and mid Arabian countries, December started dry with cooler-than-normal temperatures over much of Arabia except for the UAE and Oman where the warm water of the gulf tends to moderate the air. In fact, Kuwait recorded a minimum temperature of 1C on Dec 7. Similar near-zero or even sub-zero temperatures have been common over central and northern KSA as well over the last few days. The weather is starting to “start up” again in a typical way: First a low pressure has to affect the Mediterranean countries before any impacts reaching the Arabian  [ Read More ]