`Alexa...the snowstorm that made December 2013 the most remarkable in the last thirty years`

Arab Weather - Sinan Khalaf - These days mark the anniversary of the snowstorm "Alexa" which began to affect the region in the early hours of Thursday, December 12, 2013, with heavy and widespread snowfall, imposing a curfew after most roads were closed due to the large accumulation of snow.

In detail, the first days of December 2013 were purely autumnal, with temperatures rising to the low twenties Celsius in most Jordanian cities. However, this was a prelude to the first active depression to visit the Kingdom at the end of the first week, as heavy rains fell in all areas of the north and center of the Kingdom. Then temperatures rose slightly with scattered rainfall until the arrival of the famous snowstorm “Alexa” on December 11, bringing with it heavy rains to all areas and strong winds.

The snowstorm began to affect all the mountainous highlands at dawn on Thursday, and its impact increased significantly during Friday and Saturday, forming the strongest snowstorm in December since the beginning of Jordanian climate records, and the strongest since the February 2003 storm that swept through the north and center of the Kingdom, including the capital Amman, with great force. Meanwhile, the current storm was the most comprehensive in its strength in all regions of the Kingdom since the one that hit the Kingdom at the end of February 1992, which exceeded the current one by several times, especially in the southern highlands.

"Alice" brought huge rainfall to the highlands of the Kingdom, exceeding 200 millimeters in just three days in the northern and central mountains, which had the lion's share of snow accumulation.

Regarding temperatures, the Kingdom was affected after Storm “Alyska” by a strong wave of freezing temperatures and frost that lasted until December 26th. Consequently, daytime temperatures were below average by about 3-4 degrees Celsius when considering the month as a whole, while nighttime temperatures were more than four degrees below average.

The snowstorm “Alexa” made December 2013 the strongest in the past 35 years, in terms of rainfall and coldness, since December 1991, which lacked strong snowstorms of the “Alexa” caliber, while heavy rains were strongly present from the first day until the last, so that many parts of the northern and central mountains exceeded the 350 mm mark.