Winter to end tomorrow, but rain expected to continue till next week
dubai — Winter will officially end on Thursday in the UAE, but don’t forget to bring those umbrellas when you go out as intermittent rains are expected from Friday till Wednesday. The temperature is expected to soar to 35-36°C from the current 26-30°C, a senior weatherman at the National Centre of Meteorology (NCM) told Khaleej Times.
Fog is also expected over the weekend and fresh winds will blow sand across the country, resulting in poor horizontal visibility over exposed areas, while the sea will be ‘rough’ to ‘very rough’ at times in the Arabian Gulf.
“The rain will be on and off over a period of six days but it is not continuous and it will be in scattered areas,” said Dr Ahmed Habib, NCM meteorologist and expert on cloud-seeding. “It can be sunny in the morning, then expect mild showers in the afternoon which can become heavy at night in some areas.
“This weather condition is normal. It is the characteristic of this period, when there is a transition from one season to another — the weather can quickly change within the day.”
The country, especially the northern areas, received a refreshing spell of rains over the past few days. Dadna, a village in Fujairah, received the highest amount of rain at 51.9mm over a 24-hour period on March 17. The highest recorded amount of rain last month was 16.8mm at Farara.
There will be an increase in the average rainfall by the end of the month as compared to the same month last year. The UAE has been experiencing rains in the past six months, with last month’s average rainfall of 9mm higher than the 5.6mm recorded rainfall in February 2018.
“But last January’s rainfall was just 0.2mm and it was less than the 3.88mm recorded in January 2018,” Dr Habib noted.
The country, however, has been receiving a boost of around 10-20 per cent rainfall because of cloud seeding. “There were few cloud formations suitable for cloud seeding in January but we are expecting more clouds this month, so we are expecting to have more rain in March as compared to the same period last year,” he said.