The average year in Qatar, weatherwise

JANUARY CAPER: Rain as seen on the windscreen of a car heading towards the Corniche last week.  Photo: Shemeer RasheedBy Steff GaulterThe beginning of 2014 has been rather wet in Doha; even on New Year’s Day we had a few spots of rain. On the second day of the year, the greatly anticipated football match between Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain was a rather soggy affair as the rain poured down. That wasn’t the last we saw of the wet weather either, only a few days later, the clouds gathered once more and rain fell on Sunday night and Monday.People are now asking me what the rest of the year has in store for us, but unfortunately, a weather forecast can only look a few days into the future. Any forecast that claims to look further ahead than that should be regarded with a great degree of scepticism at best. What I can tell you, however, is the weather’s usual pattern in a typical year in Qatar.Firstly, don’t be too surprised at the rain! Almost all deserts expect to see some wet weather during a typical year. The official classification is that the annual rainfall needs to be below 250mm (10 inches). This compares with London’s average of 558mm (22 inches); Mumbai’s of 2431mm (96 inches) and New York’s of 1268mm (50 inches). Doha has an annual rainfall of 75mm (3 inches), so is definitely a desert city! Other parts of Qatar see a little more rain, particularly in the north and the east. The vast majority of Qatar’s rain falls in the winter, between November and April. This is when it’s usually cooler in Qatar and there is the greatest variety in the weather.January is usually the coolest month of the year. Obviously some years are colder than others, but often the temperature on a few nights will drop down to single figures, whilst during the day it may struggle to reach 16C (61F). This might not sound too cool, but it feels chillier than it sounds because we’re not really ready for the chill. We don’t wear the same clothes we might on a cool day in northern Europe and we don’t have carpets, so the tiled floors feel cold on our feet. Also, the houses aren’t designed to retain heat, and once the walls of the house are cold, it can be difficult to warm up a room, even with the help of a little fan heater.However cold it manages to get in January, the temperatures have generally picked up again by mid-February. That’s the end of the cold weather, but it’s not going to stay dry and settled. There will still be quite a keen wind at times, and this is likely to bring the occasional shower and some dust storms as well. Dust storms can actually be quite frequent in spring. In March 2012, the visibility was reduced to three kilometres (two miles) or less on ten separate days, thanks to some rather persistent sandstorms. That’s nearly one in three days ruined by dust!As the temperatures climb, the weather changes from the winter set-up to the summer one. This shift often brings us a period of cloud and rain. Unlike the wet weather at other times of year, this can stay over Qatar for a week. People are often surprised to see rain at this time of year, which can arrive as late as May.As this rain clears, the hot summer weather sets in and rain becomes a dim and distant memory. The heat is extreme, but it’s a dry heat. Dry heat is always easier to handle than humid heat, as it’s easier for your body to regulate its temperature. Your body controls its temperatures by sweating; this cools you down because sweat uses the heat from your body in order to evaporate the moisture from your skin. However, sweat evaporates slower from your skin in humid conditions and if your body can’t sweat fast enough, then you can overheat. This can cause the loss of water and chemicals that your body needs and, in some cases, can prove fatal.In mid-July, the air suddenly becomes more humid. Humid air is more difficult to heat than dry air, as the water in the air has to be heated as well as the air itself. This means that the actual thermometer readings drop, but it’s actually the most difficult time of year to be in Qatar.Not every day in July and August will be humid, it all depends on the direction of the wind. A wind from the east will bring the highest humidity to Doha, whereas the northwesterly winds will bring dry air. By about mid-September the weather will begin to break, but unfortunately there isn’t a sudden end to the humidity, unlike the abrupt start. It’s a gradual process, but slowly the heat will subside and people will begin to venture outside.By November, the temperatures will have eased considerably and the weather generally feels quite pleasant. The average daytime temperature is 29C. This is also the month when more variety in the weather is expected. There may be some thunderstorms, or dust storms or even fog.Every now and then the weather will throw us a surprise, and a rogue shower may appear in September, or a patch of fog in July. Unfortunately, the weather isn’t predictable enough for me to tell you exactly what surprises may be in store for us this year, and it’s unlikely that I ever will be able to do so. The weather is so volatile to tiny changes in the atmosphere that it likes to play its hand close to its chest, and it’s that air of mystery that I love about it.(The author is Senior Weather Presenter at Al Jazeera English channel. She can be contacted on steff.gaulter@yahoo.co.uk or on Twitter at @WeatherSteff)