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UAE weather: Temperatures to dip sharply over weekend

Dubai - Country to see a drop of about 5 to 8 degrees Celsius.

Don’t pack up your winter wear yet as temperatures are expected to drop significantly this weekend, according to a meteorologist at the UAE’s National Centre of Meteorology (NCM).

Brace for a cooler weekend, as the country will see a drop of about 5 to 8 degrees Celsius in the maximum temperatures on Thursday and Friday, Dr Ahmad Habib from the NCM told Khaleej Times.

“Owing to the Northwesterly winds, the UAE will see a drop of about 8 degrees in the maximum temperatures recorded. Maximum temperature, especially on Friday, is expected to go down to 22 degree Celsius from 28 or 30 degree recorded on Tuesday and Wednesday,” he said.

Current temperature in Dubai is 26 °C and NCM has reported a dew point at 13 °C. The maximum temperature in the country is expected to be between 24 and 28 °C. And, the lowest will be between 8 and 12 °C.

Although the skies over Dubai look clear, the expert didn’t rule out the chances of fog formation in the coming days as the air mass, which is the volume of air defined by its temperature and water vapour content, continues to remain the same this week.

“Beginning Thursday noon, and continuing through the weekend, we are expecting the air mass to change as it will be affected by some light to moderate as well as strong Northwesterly winds, especially over the sea. These northwesterly winds will cause the sea to get rough from Thursday noon time onwards and will continue to remain the same throughout the weekend. These winds are also expected to accompanied by dust and sand blowing over the land.”

The winds will continue to blow also over the East coast and will affect the Oman Sea too making it rough, he added.

Talking about the on and off fog formations the country has been witnessing over the past week, Dr Habib said that fog formation at this time of the year is not unusual as perfect weather conditions are currently in play.

Elaborating on the propitious conditions for heavy fog, which the UAE is experiencing now, he said: “Fog formation is a combination of cold weather coupled with high humidity levels close to 100 per cent, maximum wind speeds of 5km/h and high-pressure cooling of the earth’s surface.”

“It is still relatively cold in some areas and the country is continuing to record low temperatures with Al Ain’s Raknah recording the lowest temperatures of 5.2 degree Celsius at 6.45am UAE time on Wednesday” he said.

Fog formation started over the western parts of the UAE at the beginning of this week. The most recent fog formation started on Monday night between 8pm and 9pm in the western part and it gradually extended towards the coastal areas of Abu Dhabi and moved towards Dubai. On Tuesday morning, it covered most parts of the UAE, including the northern emirates and cleared only by around 10am the same day.

NCM has stated that indoor humidity is around 60 per cent while in general the humidity level is at 78 per cent on Wednesday. It is expected to get humid by night and Thursday morning with a chance of fog and mist formation over some coastal and internal areas.

saman@khaleejtimes.com