WASM - The WASM Regional Center, which specializes in weather and climate forecasts for the Arab region, is monitoring unusual atmospheric conditions at this time of year. A significant deepening of the monsoon winds into the Arabian Peninsula is expected over the coming days in a gradual manner, with these winds reaching their peak deepening in the final days of July. This will cause rainfall to fall over wide areas of the Arabian Peninsula, including Riyadh and Jeddah, extending to parts of Jordan, northern Saudi Arabia, and the Arab Republic of Egypt.
This is expected to coincide with the impact of a strong heat wave over wide areas of northern Saudi Arabia, the Levant, and Egypt, with temperatures rising significantly and reaching high levels in some areas due to the deepening of the monsoon winds.
The reason for this atmospheric system is the occurrence of strong storms over northern Europe, which leads to the intensification of the subtropical jet stream and its influence extending to eastern Europe, away from Turkey and the Mediterranean region. This causes a significant drop in surface atmospheric pressure over northern Africa and Egypt, leading to the deepening of monsoon winds over wide areas of the eastern Arab world. This pushes what is called the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) toward the depths of the Arabian Peninsula.
These conditions are expected to continue until the beginning of August at least, with strong heat waves persisting over the Levant and Jordan, coinciding with occasional thunderstorm rainfall.
The deepening of the intertropical convergence zone or monsoon winds will affect wide areas of the Empty Quarter desert, the Emirates, Riyadh, Asir, Jazan, Najran, Al-Baha, and wide areas of Mecca, Medina, and Hail. A weak portion of the monsoon winds is expected to reach northern Saudi Arabia, the Levant, and Jordan, causing significant temperature rises and limited thunderstorm rainfall.
The WASM Regional Center will continue to monitor these atmospheric conditions and will issue all updates regarding expected weather situations.
Unusually, the seasonal winds are expected to intensify with summer rainfall in scattered areas across the Arabian Peninsula at the end of July
