Saudi Arabia: Heavy rains and historic hail... the story of the historic weather event that `overwhelmed` the Kingdom

Arab Weather - Returning to the climate archive for 2016, Arab Weather's monitoring indicates that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was affected during the first third of April 2016 by a strong state of atmospheric instability called Ghamra, which was represented by widespread thunderstorms that led to heavy rainfall and heavy hail in many areas of the Kingdom.

During the peak of the event, the areas north of Riyadh were hit by a violent hailstorm, with large and unprecedented amounts of hail falling and completely covering the ground, turning the region into an exceptionally white landscape in a scene that was described at the time as “historic.”

Weather conditions are behind the situation

According to the analysis of climate maps at that time, this situation resulted from the rush of a cold upper-level trough from the eastern Mediterranean towards the Arabian Peninsula, coinciding with the activity of the Red Sea trough at the surface, in addition to the flow of humid tropical air currents from the south and southeast.

This interaction between the cold upper air and tropical moisture led to the formation of huge cumulonimbus clouds that caused violent thunderstorms, heavy rainfall and hail in vast areas of the Kingdom, including the central and eastern parts and some northern regions.

exceptional climatic phenomenon

This event is one of the most prominent exceptional spring weather systems that have affected the Kingdom during the past decade, as it was characterized by its strength and wide impact, and by hail accumulations that have not been recorded in those areas for many years.