South-easterly wind activity today until Friday afternoon, and recommendations to avoid swimming in the Dead Sea

Arab Weather - God willing, moderate to active easterly to southeasterly winds are expected today, Thursday, until Friday noon, accompanied by strong to severe gusts exceeding 60 km/h, especially on the slopes of the mountain heights, especially the southern ones, and the Shafa Ghor and Ghor areas. This causes a noticeable increase in the feeling of coldness, especially at night and early morning. Active easterly winds also stir up dust and dirt in desert and exposed areas, causing a decrease in horizontal visibility.

East winds descend at high speeds towards the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea

The reason for the high speed of the easterly winds when they blow over the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea is that the winds blow from the east to the west (a direction opposite to the natural behavior of the winds). The easterly winds rise towards the western slopes of the mountainous heights, and descend very quickly towards the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea regions, due to the lowness of those regions above sea level, and the cold and dryness of the easterly winds, which makes them heavy, and thus their intensity and speed double when they descend from the western slopes of the mountains, some of whose peaks are more than 1700 meters high, towards the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea, whose height does not exceed -400 meters.

Tips to avoid swimming in the Dead Sea when the east wind blows

The Arab Weather Center advises avoiding swimming in the Dead Sea during the coming days, because the winds blowing over Jordan usually come from the northwest or west, and are often of moderate speed. Therefore, they push the waves on the small surface of the Dead Sea lightly to moderately, which is why tourists and swimmers rush to the beach naturally and gradually without much effort, because the winds blow from behind them, meaning they come from the west and northwest.

In March 2015, two drowning incidents occurred due to strong easterly to southeasterly winds blowing across the country, which meant that the waves and currents were against swimmers, making them unable to return to shore as they would on normal westerly days.

What makes it even more difficult for swimmers is the nature of the Dead Sea water, which is characterized by its high salinity and density. As soon as the waves hit the swimmers’ faces, the salty water enters their eyes and mouths, which makes them unable to see, and they begin to feel “sick.”

In light of the expected weather conditions, the Arab Weather Center advises the following:

• Avoid swimming in the Dead Sea.
• Beware of dust in the atmosphere for patients with respiratory and eye diseases.
• Be careful when driving on desert roads due to dust.
• Beware of strong winds, especially in the Jordan Valley and Dead Sea areas.

And God knows best.