Summer heat inbound…

If you’ve found that your weather small talk has recently featured more of such classic lines as “oooh the heat’s really picked up in the last few days” and “yep, summer is on the way” — there’s a very good reason for that. The heat has picked up in the last few days, and summer is indeed on its way.

But if you’re looking for something to focus the blame on, the chief meteorological conspirators here are the dropping of windspeed, and a weak surface pressure system combined with an area of high pressure in the upper air. Geography and the axial alignment of the earth, as always, share in that culpability.

A forecast from the National Centre of Meteorology for today has given today (Wednesday, April 13) an upper maximum temperature of 45ºC (remember these are ‘in the shade’ figures), though on the coast the mercury is only like to tickle the temp of around 40ºC. We can also expect partial cloud cover and a steady increase of humidity from late afternoon into the night, with a potential max of 80 per cent relative humidity.

Yesterday the top temp recorded in the country was 44.6°C in the Al Jazeera region of Al Dhafrah, Abu Dhabi. With coastal regions peaking in the late 30s, and early 40s.

What can we expect for the rest of the week?

By this point, even the most stubborn of us have balled up the winter wardrobe and relegated to the very back of the closet. And that’s sensible as average temperatures are now on the upward march.

Thursday will continue this same ‘hot and partly cloudy’ theme, with light to moderate winds. The clouds should stay with us into Friday, and through Saturday and Sunday, though by then we can expect a small drop-off in the heat.

If you are fasting, it almost goes without saying, but you are advised to stay indoors and out of direct sunlight as much as possible. Stay safe.

Images: Getty