Storms set to hit the Gulf as weekend weather forecast predicts heavy rain and strong winds

Kuwait and other parts of the GCC will continue to experience rain and thunderstorms that bring a risk of widespread flooding, from the western coast of Saudi Arabia to Kuwait.

Thunder clouds were expected to bring moderate to heavy rains over Kuwait on Thursday night, according to Dherar Al Ali, an official at the country’s meteorological department.

He forecast heavy winds on Saturday, but said the rain should subside at the weekend.

The hardest-hit areas in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia could receive as much as 130 millimetres of rain in any given 24hour period at the weekend, creating a risk of flash floods in many areas, Mr Al Ali said.

Although storms are common across the peninsula at this time of year, the severity of the recent bad weather is a result of the recent emergence of El Nino in the Pacific Ocean, according to the Royal Meteorological Society.

Such weather could become common in the future.

“This could be because of a number of reasons, including climate change. Climate change has always been expected to increase the severity of extreme weather events – making heatwaves more intense and making torrential rain even heavier,” a member of the society said.

The rains in Kuwait in the past week were the worst since 1934, when more than 300mm fell in less than an hour and a half.

The current storm system is expected to create winds of up to 45kph in parts of the GCC, raising the risk of structures collapsing. The storm is expected to remain in northern Saudi Arabia and threaten areas north of Riyadh, as well as Jeddah.

“This magnitude of rainfall can quickly cause flash flooding capable of washing away cars and damaging homes and businesses,” Eric Leister, a senior meteorologist at AccuWeather, said in a report.