Riyadh | An unexpected end to July 2022... from a hot summer day to unusual storms and rain. Will it happen again this year?

Weather of Arabia - Sinan Khalaf - A dry end to the month of July in the city of Riyadh, completely different from the rainy end that the capital witnessed in July of the year 2022 AD, when Riyadh was struck by an exceptional thunderstorm in terms of intensity and timing.

Sunday, July 31, 2024 was exceptional

From a hot summer day to unusual storms and rain!

On Sunday, July 31, 2022, the atmosphere in the capital, Riyadh, was completely stable, but radical changes in the weather occurred in the afternoon hours, as the sky was covered with large amounts of cumulus thunderclouds, and rain fell in abundance that the residents of the capital were not accustomed to, especially since it was the middle of summer! This caused the water level to rise in a number of roads and residential neighborhoods, exceeding 50 mm in some neighborhoods of the capital. The rain was also accompanied by high-speed descending winds, causing a decrease and lack of horizontal visibility on external roads.

Unusual weather patterns dominated the region

Specialists at the Arabian Regional Weather Center attributed the rare rains that fell in Riyadh on July 31, 2022 to unusual weather patterns that allowed large quantities of tropical moisture to flow in a rare manner from the Arabian Sea and the Horn of Africa region towards all the southern and central parts of the Arabian Peninsula. , including the capital, Riyadh.

The high altitude was centered to the north of the Arabian Peninsula, coinciding with the shift of the intertropical dividing line “ITCZ” towards the north, pushing tropical humidity towards the region, generating severe weather disturbances, as a result of which cumulonimbus clouds of a tropical nature were formed, accompanied by heavy thunderstorms, which the region had not witnessed. This year so far.