Tropical storm will ‘slightly affect’ Jordan until Monday

AMMAN — The Kingdom on Sunday and Monday will be slightly affected by the tropical cyclone Mekunu, which is battering the desert and eastern mountains along the Arabian Sea, a Jordan Meteorological Department (JMD) source said.

The cyclone, which was downgraded to a tropical storm on Saturday, lashed the southern coast of Oman on Friday, leaving two people dead, while it killed seven people in Yemen on Thursday, according to news agencies.

The cyclone has battered the coast and inland areas in Yemen and Oman, causing torrential rains, strong winds and massive waves. Yemen’s Socotra Island was then declared a disaster zone.

On Saturday, Mekunu started heading towards southern Saudi Arabia and was expected to hit parts of the Empty Quarter (the Rub' Al Khali desert located at the south of the Arabian Peninsula) late Saturday.

“Jordan will not be directly affected by the tropical storm; however, a state of unstable weather condition will prevail on Sunday and Monday as the storm unsettles the region’s weather conditions,” head of the weather forecasting department at JMD Raed Rafed told The Jordan Times on Saturday.

The storm will affect Jordan with slight showers, unlike Yemen and Oman, where floods were reported, he added, noting "cyclones such as Mekunu are recurrent over the Arabian Sea during this time of year because of the rising temperature of the sea surface."

Unstable weather conditions will start on Sunday noon and intensify on Monday, when rain showers and thunderstorms are forecast.

Temperatures on Sunday will range between a high of 33oC and a low of 21oC, according to the JMD, which said that clouds will start building by noon.

“Scattered showers on Sunday night are expected, especially in the southern and eastern parts of the country, while winds will be southwesterly moderate turning to northerly, brisk at times,” according to the weather forecaster.

Impact of the unstable weather conditions is expected to prevail on Monday, when a drop in temperatures is forecast.

Daytime temperatures will be 30oC, dropping to 19oC at nighttime in Amman, according to the JMD, which said that winds will be southwesterly moderate to brisk, turning to northwesterly.

“The weather on Monday will be cloudy and rain showers are expected as well as thunderstorms in most parts of the country,” Rafed said.

The state of unstable weather condition will dissipate on Tuesday, when the weather will be sunny and moderate, according to the JMD.