Next Week: Summer and Winter!

Hello All,

The last time I wrote here it was before ~1 month, since no significant weather systems affected Jordan and the Middle East. January 2009 somehow was one of the driest on record.

Something interesting is developing in the horizon for the next week. Actually a low pressure system will move same as Khmasin track all the way to the Middle East. The low pressure system will push a very hot air mass in front of it, while a very cold air will be pushed from Central Europe behind this system.

Let's talk by days, on Saturday 7thFeb, an area of low pressure will develop to the north of Algeria, and will move by Sunday 8thFeb to the northern Coast of Libya, pulling very dry and hot air from the African Sahara. By Monday 9thFeb the low pressure system will reach Egypt, and affect Jordan by very drastic rise on the temperatures, temperatures will be about +15c above the daily average!! And the weather could be somehow hot over Aqaba and low lands! Also dust and sandstorms is possible to be combined with the "very" hot air mass. Once the low pressure system will reach Egypt, a very cold air will be pushed behind the system and force the low pressure to move quickly towards north-west Cyprus.

Numerical Weather Predictions models, start to point something is very interesting and needed in the same time. NWP start to indicate that the low pressure system when it will move from Egypt to Cyprus, the very cold air which is behind the low will meet with the very hot air mass; this of course will create a very suitable condition for incredible instability in the atmosphere and will lead to very heavy rainfall over wide areas.

We still away about 5 days from Tuesday, but we'll have to keep a close eye on this one, since forecasts have had a tendency to change in a crazy way this year, and since this kind of systems could bring amazing amounts of rain, which is very needed in this period.

We will monitor and keep in touch,

Ciao