Expect intermittent rain and thunderstorms and at times windy and dusty weather over the next few days — possibly until next week — as the UAE transitions from winter to summer, a forecaster said.

Clouds of dust covered most of the country on Monday, bringing visibility to 1,700 metres in Sweihan and 2,000m in Liwa. The unstable weather will continue possibly until next week.

“This weather is due to the southerly wind associated with a very common trough centred over the Arabian Peninsula. This southerly wind is freshening at times, causing dust blowing over the UAE. And this situation combined with cold low in upper air, it tend to develop some rain clouds over the UAE from west to north,” a forecaster at the National Centre for Meteorology (NCM), told Gulf News.

“This will continue because of the successive troughs coming from west to east and may extend to another week, maybe five days at least.”

Light rain was recorded over many parts of Abu Dhabi in Madinat Zayed, Al Dhafra, Abu Dhabi Island, Al Mafraq and Mussafah, Al Shahama and Khalifa City. Scattered areas of Al Ain received light to moderate rain.

The forecaster stressed that weather like this is not uncommon as during the transition period in the UAE.

“This is the transitional period between winter and summer where we see some phenomena from winter and some phenomena from summer, characterised by a few hot or windy days and after that cloudy and rainy days with a decrease in temperature. Then till we enter April, maybe by April 10, it will be steady weather until summer.”

By Tuesday evening, another round of wet weather is expected accompanied by thunder activity over the northern and eastern part of the UAE at times.

“It’s not a big thunderstorm, just a normal one over the sea and the islands and maybe over the northern area starting from evening on Tuesday until Wednesday and Thursday. Some scattered rain, maybe between moderate and heavy rain at times, maybe associated with thunder over the sea and northern area.”

SOURCE : GULFNEWS