Winter is officially 2 months away, weatherman says
METEOROLOGIST EXPLAINS HOW GRADUAL THE DROP IN TEMPERATURE WILL BE IN DAYS AHEAD
Winter is coming. But to those who can’t wait and can’t help but complain about the heat “when it’s already October”— the cool clime is still a couple of months away, according to the weatherman.
The mercury peaks in the UAE in August and then gradually drops as the residents’ favourite season approaches.
“Geographically, winter in the UAE starts on December 23 every year. The temperature starts cooling gradually throughout the course of winter which is until March 22 or 23. January is the coldest month,” Mohammad Al Abri, director of Meteorology Department at the National Centre of Meteorology (NCM), told Gulf News.
He said by the end of October, the mercury will drop by about one degree on average every two or three days.
Looking back
Based on the NCM Climate Report for the years 2003 until 2017, the minimum temperature or the coldest temperature in the coastal city of Abu Dhabi for October during the day is 24C while the average minimum temperature is 27.9 C.
The minimum temperature drops to 19C by October and further to 12C by December. Average minimum temperature drops to 20C by December.
The average temperature for October is 30.8C in the same area, dropping to 22.4C by December. The coldest month, January, may see a drop in average temperature to 20.1C.
In Dubai, the minimum temperature dropped to 8.2C in December and 7.7C in January for the period of 1977 to 2017. The average temperature is 29.7C in October and 21.3C in December.
“However, there are some short temporary cold waves from time to time that causes a drop in temperature by more than five degree and then go back to the normal temperature during winter,” Al Abri explained.
In December 2016, for example, the UAE experienced a cold snap for days due to the prevailing north-westerly wind coming from colder areas such as Iraq, northern Iran and eastern Mediterranean.
The lowest temperature was recorded at Jais Mountain at 7C on December 9 and three days later, this plummeted to 2.5C. When these cold air masses envelope the UAE, the country’s highest peak, the Jebel Jais, may see sub-zero temperatures andpossibly a snowfall.
This happened in February 2017 when Jebel Jais recorded -5.5C temperatures while the rest of the country experienced 12C to 17C.
For now, the temperature in Dubai will range from 24C to 39C on Wednesday, falling to 20C to 34C on Thursday.
Abu Dhabi will see a drop in its maximum temperature of 38C on Tuesday to 36C on Thursday.