Qatar records lowest temperature in history

On Sunday, February 5, 2017, weather station located in Qatar's southwest measured 1.5 °C (34.7 °F) which is the coldest recorded temperature in the weather monitoring history of the State of Qatar.

Qatar Meteorology Department (QMD) said the temperature was registered in the coastal city of Abu Samrah, in the country's southwest. The new record low temperature is the lowest since the 3.8 °C (38.8 °F) recorded in January 1964 in the city of Mesaieed.

Interestingly, neighboring UAE received rare snowfall in its mountainous region this weekend and registered -5 °C (23 °F) and 10 cm (3.9 inches) of accumulated snow.

The cold wave started affecting Qatar, and the Arabian Peninsula in general, on Wednesday evening, February 1.

Later on Saturday, February 4, the high pressure accompanied by the influx of cold air mass covered the area. The recorded temperatures in QMD stations were very low but still near the record observations in the cities of the country, the department said.

Early Sunday, February 5, the wind speed was calm and the temperatures continued to be low until 05:40 local time. Southwesterly winds, coming from the sea, were briefly bringing warm air but they sharply shifted to the SE and caused the temperature to drop dramatically by 7.5 °C (13.5 °F) within 30 minutes.

It is worth mentioning that the air monitoring station in Abu Samrah is one of the modern automatic stations of the Department of Meteorology and does not hold any long-term records, QMD concluded.

Featured image credit: NASA/NOAA/DoD Suomi NPP/VIIRS; Google; TW.