Autumn starts on Sunday

Autumnal equinox falls on September 23, but you won’t notice a change in temperature until October begins

Autumnal equinox falls on September 23, but you won’t notice a change in temperature until October begins |

The UAE has come out of a notoriously hot summer and gradually become cooler, with maximum temperatures dropping to 35 degrees Celsius in the last few weeks.

But how likely is the weather expected to change once autumn starts?

Equinox comes from the Latin word “equi”, meaning “equal” and “nox” which stands for “night”.

It marks the two events of the year, in March and September, when the sun is exactly above the equator and the day and night are of equal length.

Ebrahim Al Jarwan, general supervisor at Sharjah Planetarium, said that according to astronomical calculations, the autumnal equinox will fall on Sunday, September 23 — it always falls between September 22 to September 24.

Fair weather

Al Jarwan explained that on the autumnal equinox, the number of hours at night are equal to daylight hours.

“But then the hours in the day start to reduce while the hours at night become longer, until we reach the shortest day of the year on December 22,” he said.

Even though autumn will officially start, it won’t be until the beginning of October before residents will notice a change in temperature.

The Abu Dhabi-based National Centre of Meteorology (NCM) said that the weather during the weekend will remain fair in general with some low clouds in the eastern coast.

The weather today, according to NCM, will be an average of 26C to 33C in coastal areas, 25C to 35C in internal areas and 23C to 27C in the mountain region.

High humidity

The maximum level of humidity across the country will range from 75 to 85 per cent in coastal areas, with fog and mist formation expected in the far west.

The high level of humidity will bring about fog and mist at night and in the early morning, accompanied with northwesterly to southwesterly winds at a speed of 20 to 30km/h, reaching 40km/h at times.

Temperatures on Saturday are expected to remain constant in the mid-30s, although they are expected to rise up to 45C at midday. The blowing winds on the eastern coast are also expected to carry dust and sand to open areas.

On September 23 and 24, southwesterly winds will become northwesterly to northeasterly by the afternoon, with a speed ranging from 15 to 25km/h, which will reach up to 35km/h.

The relative humidity is likely to increase during the night and early morning over some coastal areas.

The sea will continue with calm to moderate waves in the Arabian Gulf and in the Sea of Oman.